Preserving Consequence
by KlassyMarie
Summary: Sometimes relationships just suck. Camry Finch-Fletchley, Albus Potter, and a few others are going to learn that the hard way. Some of them are going to take the easy way out, while others are going to fight back. Al/OC, James/OC. Next Gen Fic.
1. Abnegation

Story Title: Preserving Consequence

Author: WonderGirl-Marie

Point of View: Protagonist First Person

Era: Next Generation

Chapter Title: Abnegation

Chapter Summary: Camry Finch-Fletchley nearly misses the train to Hogwarts, and discovers something about a friend of hers that she never allowed herself to see before.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe is not mine, nor is anything that rightfully belongs in it. No copyright infringement is intended. Please don't sue me, I'm only seventeen and I'm already in dept; have mercy.

_My Massive A/N:_...I'm baaaack!

Okay, so I've been thinking on writing a Next Generation fic for a very long time and now I'm finally getting around to it. The main character isn't one of Harry and Ginny's kids, or any of the Weasleys; though they are going to be in it. Their roles, for the most part, are still undecided as yet. Other than James and Albus, of course.

This story is still being written, and I will post chapters as I write them. I know where I want to go with this story, but I'm still a little iffy on how I plan to get there, so the length of this story is still a mystery to me. Most definitely 15+ though.

This is my first continual. Well, actually it's my second, but I lost my mojo on my first one and deleted it at 28 chapters. If anyone reading this was reading _Unrefined_ and liked it, I'm sorry I deleted it, but I refuse to leave a story up that I don't plan on finishing. I always hate finding, reading, and loving a story only to see that it's not finished and is never going to be. There is a character from _Unrefined_ that I crossed over into this story because I still want to tell their story, which was only just starting to unfold in _Unrefined_.

This story is, for the most part, a romance. There is a kind of plot. I'm not sure how original it is...

Anyway, I'm going to leave this warning now **I am horrible with updates**. Sometimes I'll update twice a week and then not again for two months. I'm not sure how I'll be with updates. I'm in my final year of High School, and I'm starting university in the fall (my first choice school, yay!), so I shouldn't be able to update much but I'm also the world's biggest procrastinator so who knows.

oooOoooOoooOooo

I was surrounded by the rich and famous. Somebodies. In comparison to those around me I was kind of a nobody.

Now, what people seemed to have had trouble understanding is that when I said that I'm a nobody, I was not saying that I was a loner, or that I had no friends, or that no one knew who I was. I had plenty of friends, and lots of people knew who I was.

When I said I'm a nobody I meant I was a nothing-special girl. See, there were a lot of somebodies at Hogwarts when I attended. There were the Potters; James, Albus, and Lily. The three children of the Savior of the Wizarding World. There were the Weasleys, the children and grand children of the people who supported, fought alongside, and eventually welcomed Harry Potter into their family; Fred, Rose, Lucy, Hugo, and Roxanne. I can't forget Scorpius Malfoy, either. He was the son of Draco Malfoy, the infamous Death Eater.

So, that's what I meant when I said I was a nobody. My father is Justin Finch-Fletchley, a simple and meager worker for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. My mother is Lavender Finch-Fletchley, a strange and intrusive stay-at-home mother. Yes, she did fight in the Final Battle, but she openly admits to being of little help.

So that's it. When I was going into my sixth year at Hogwarts, which was also the sixth year for Albus, Rose, and Scorpius, I was a nobody. I didn't mind, that's just what I was. I was actually quite content to never have to worry about seeing an article in the Daily Prophet detailing my most recent fall through the moving stair cases that no one was around to witness anyway.

My name is Camry Finch-Fletchley. I was a Gryffindor with James, Albus, Fred, Hugo, and Roxanne. And I'm going to tell you how I became a somebody.

oooOoooOoooOooo

I was pushing my way through the crowded pathways of Platform Nine and Three Quarters towards the shining red train. I couldn't believe how crowded it was that close to departure, nor could I believe how ridiculously late my mother had slept in that day.

I woke her up three times!

It was all because the crazy old loon made a "premonition" the day before that I was going to be cutting it close with the train. She always made predictions that she could control. Dinner is going to be burnt tonight, we're going to be late for the party, you're going to be receiving a special surprise tomorrow. My mother was a kook.

I heard the warning bells, and started to get a little meaner than I would have liked in my trek for the train. I was shoving people, and I think I might have actually broken one old lady's hip. I felt bad, but I didn't stop. I didn't stop moving until I was in the train.

I barely had one foot inside the train when it train started to move. I had one grip on my trunk, my very heavy trunk, and one on the handle just inside the doorway of the train.

At that point I was seriously considering letting go and just going home to glare at my mother for several hours. I had one foot and arm in the train, one foot scraping along the platform, and one hand with a death-like grip on a heavy ass trunk. The rest of my body was in some kind of not-quite-train-not-quite-platform limbo.

Because we were nearing the tunnel, I really was getting ready to let go, but then for some reason someone in heaven smiled at me. I felt a grip around the wrist that was in the train, and I felt an almighty pull, and then I was flat on my back in the train, my trunk was crushing my legs, and a boy with bright green eyes and a bright red face was towering over me.

"Are you okay?"

I was a little dazed, but the voice of a certain somebody–Albus–pulled me back into the present. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

I sat up, and pulled my trunk off my legs so I could stand up. Once I was certain that my trunk, which really was extremely heavy, had not broken my knee caps, I turned to Al. "Thanks for that, my mother dropped me off about five minutes before departure."

"Oh, uh, that's fine. It was nothing, really. I mean, you needed help right? I was only doing what any good-" Al's face turned even brighter and he stopped talking abruptly.

I smiled at him. "Exactly. I needed help. You just did what any good guy would do."

Al was kind of a nervous guy. He was nice and cute, but he was awkward and tended to stutter and choke up a lot. I tried to be as encouraging as I could, but I'd never really had a decent conversation with the guy so there was only so much I could do. I usually just brought up Quidditch, which was one topic he could go on about without stuttering or choking.

Al just smiled and nodded at me. I stood there for a minute so that he didn't think I was running away from him or anything, but then I pointed down the train's corridor. "I should really go find the girls." He looked a little upset, so I figured I'd end with the lamest joke I could think of. "They're lost without me, you know."

He laughed at that, and I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the guy. He was laughing just a bit too much at my bad joke. Oh well, I figured as I dragged my trunk down the corridor, he'll meet a girl one of these days and he'll get over that stage. Hopefully.

I found the girls after not too long, it looked like Vanessa had been the first one on the train–again–and gotten a good compartment.

"Hey!" I smiled at my friends as I feebly attempted to put my trunk away.

"Cam! We thought you were going to miss the train, or something." Annily Jordan said as she got up to help me shove my trunk away. "Why the hell in your trunk so damn heavy?" she grunted as we finally got my trunk in place. Ha! See? My trunk really was that heavy!

Annily was also a somebody. Her father is Lee Jordan, who had been the host of Potterwatch back during the war. She had short black hair, and huge brown eyes. Her hair was, maybe, an inch long all around her head. It had been like that since I met her first year. And her eyes really were huge, she had the facial proportions of an owl, and really did look like her owl, who's name was Mandy.

"Mum predicted I'd barely make the train."

"Ah."

"Yeah." I sighed and plopped down in the nearest seat, which coincidently was occupied by my friend, and future super model, Jenessa Glass.

Jen was easily the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts. She had waist length, chestnut brown hair, bright blue eyes, and the most perfect teeth anyone has ever seen. Ever. Not to mention her voice shamed Nightingales into retirement, and her legs never ended.

She arched a perfectly shaped brow, note my jealousy, at me and frowned. "And you can't sit in the next seat because?"

"This one is closer?" with a roll of her eyes Jen shoved me into the next seat.

I looked around. "Where's Vee? I figured she was the one who got us the compartment."

"She is." Emily Rhodes shot me a pointed look. Oh. Right. Vanessa almost always showed up on the Hogwarts Express an exhausted mess. She spent the first hour in the bathroom trying to discretely wash her hair in the sinks.

Emily, a fellow nobody, was a beater for the Gryffindors. She had the figure to prove it too. She had no feminine curves, from shoulder to hip her body went in a completely straight line, and she had thick, muscled arms too. Because of that some of our less pleasant classmates called her Emmet, claiming she was a man in a bad disguise. I always thought that was a little much, especially since she had such a pretty face. She had a nice, slender jaw line, and soft green eyes with lashes that went for miles. She was also one of the few non-Weasleys with red hair, although her curly hair was a much deeper, almost auburn shade.

"Right." I nodded, and leaned back in my seat, which was next to the window.

At that moment the compartment door opened, and I turned expecting to see Vanessa, but was instead faced with James Potter. There was a collective sigh from the occupants of the compartment. Don't get me wrong. I loved James, he was a great guy and he was always good for a laugh. When Jen wasn't present.

The boy was infatuated with my beautiful friend, and he was relentless in his pursuit. Jen admitted to me once that she thought he was cute and had a bit of a crush on him, but she didn't really date so she never accepted his offers.

When Jen was in the room James saw no one else, which was why we all sighed. Talk about a blow to the ego.

"Jenessa! Hey!" James grinned that infamous Potter grin and leaned against the doorframe with an ease and coolness that made both genders green with envy.

"Hi James. How was your summer?" Jen baring her perfect teeth in a perfect smile. Note the jealousy. Seriously, being friends with Jenessa Glass was enough to give any girl inferiority issues.

"Pretty depressing actually, see, I didn't see you once." Even James cringed at that horrible line. He didn't take it back though.

Jen let out her bell-like laugh. "My summer was great, I spent it in Australia with my grandparents."

"That's awesome for you." James bit his lip for a second and then squared his jaw. We all knew what was coming next. "I don't know when the first Hogsmede weekend is going to be, but would you like to go with me?"

Jen sighed, she looked seriously tempted to say yes, I never understood her reservations about dating. It must have something to do with her parents both being bitterly divorced over three times each. Had to be it. "I don't think so James."

James frowned at her. "Are you ever going to go out with me?"

After a slight pause Jen got this smile on her face that got me very paranoid. "I'll go out with you when Albus has a whole conversation with Cam without blushing."

And so I started to blush.

Then James looked at me as if noticing for the first time Jen wasn't completely alone. Knowing him, it probably _was_ the first time he was noticing. Then he turned back to Jen with a strange look on his face. "You swear?"

"What do you mean?" and now Jen looked worried.

"If Al has a whole conversation with Cam without blushing, you'll go out with me?"

Jen visibly swallowed. God, I had no idea what was going on, it was all so obviously over my head. I bit my tongue though, I didn't think it was the time to ask what the hell was going on. And just as suddenly, Jen's worry was gone and she was her confident self again. "Yeah, I swear."

James grinned. "Good. Then we'll be going on our first date by Halloween."

With that said, James turned and left the compartment with a considerable swagger and bounce to his step.

"Um, what the hell was that?" I asked. Seriously? Jen will date James if Al can talk to me? What the hell?

I looked around the compartment and everyone was avoiding my eyes. "Um, hello?"

The compartment fell into an awkward silence and for a while no one spoke while my question was left hanging in the air, turning into a pink hippogriff in the middle of the room. It wasn't until Vanessa came in that any of us spoke again.

She stepped in and just stopped, instantly feeling the tension in the room. "I'm assuming I missed something, then?"

Vanessa was your everyday, cliched, brain; with the exception of an amazingly unique haircut. Every year it was different. This year it was this strange, shoulder length cut, with side sweeping bangs. There was her natural light blonde mixed in with copper highlights and one bright pink streak in her bangs. She had rather plain brown eyes always outlined with thick black eye liner, and covered by thick rimmed black glasses.

"Maybe you can tell me what everyone here refuses to. Jen told James she'd go out with him when Al talked to me without blushing." I didn't bother asking a question, I just laid out the facts. Vanessa was a smart girl, she could figure out what I wanted to know. Why me? Why not talk to Annily without blushing?

"Oh." Vanessa's lips stayed frozen in the oh shape for a bit before she shrugged and sat down next to Annily.

"Well?"

"You really don't know?" Annily interrupted Vanessa right what she opened her mouth to answer my question.

"Know what?" I snapped, I was really getting irritated. How hard was it to answer one simple question?

"Albus has had a crush on you for as long as James has had one on me."

I turned to Jen. "That's ridiculous. James has been in love with you since the first time you said hi to him."

"Exactly." Emily gave me another one of her amazing pointed looks. That girl always had the most mesmerizing gaze.

And me, being the eloquent one of the group just stared blankly from face to face as I thought about what I was hearing.

Albus Potter had a crush on me. That's why he was always so awkward around me. That's why the other sixth year Gryffindor boys were always going on about how confident and comfortable in his skin he was around me. He had had a crush on me since the beginning of first year. Albus Potter, one of the biggest somebodies had a crush on me.

"Bloody hell."

oooOoooOoooOooo

Thank you for reading all the way through. I would like to know how is this story looking to your readers? Good/bad/okay?

_Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged_


	2. Benediction

Chapter Title: Benediction

Chapter Summary: Camry's first night of her sixth year at Hogwarts.

A/N: I would like to start this off by bowing down in worship to **Niniel204**, who was my very first review!

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After the welcoming feast, at which Headmaster McGonagall gave a very frightening order to refrain from the use of Weasleys Wizard Wheezes products, I got the password to the common room from Vanessa and sneaked off to go for a quick walk around the castle. I wasn't tired, and I wasn't ready to go back to be practically locked in the common room just yet.

I hated curfew. Being stuck in the limited space with seventy plus people? I wasn't claustrophobic, but that was enough to put any girl's nerves on edge. The common room after hours was pretty much a glorified prison cell!

After quite a long walk through Hogwarts' halls I was finally willing to accept my fate, and began my journey towards the Fat Lady. I was about halfway there when I felt a strong, muscled arm wrap itself around my shoulders and pull me into the body of a very well built boy; I stopped walking at that point. I felt my cheeks heat up and turned to see Fred Weasley grinning down at me.

Okay. That was a little odd. Fred and I weren't friends. He was the captain of the Quidditch team, and we made small talk on the occasions he was waiting for Emily to come down from the girls dorms to talk to her about it, but that was pretty much our relationship. Occasional small talk.

"Fred?"

For what felt like forever Fred just continued to grin at me. He pulled up his arm that wasn't around my shoulders and reached behind my head to twirl my ponytail in his fingers.

I was about to shove him away, because as nice as it was pressed against his very nice chest it was starting to get creepy. It was just then that he finally started speaking.

"So," he finally turned away from me, still pressing me to him, and started walking; one still around my shoulders, the other still reaching up so he could play with my hair. God, this guy was a flirt! "I was talking to Jimmy-boy a little earlier tonight."

It became obvious to me at that point that I was supposed to ask what they talked about. "He's your best friend and your cousin, don't you talk all the time?"

"This is true." Fred nodded. "But tonight he had something extra special to say."

We arrived at a flight of stares and Fred still didn't let me go. I have to admit that I was getting quite comfortable in the boy's arms so I wasn't exactly complaining, but the trek up the stairs was awkward and took twice as long as it should have.

It was while walking up those stares that I just took the bait and asked him the question he wanted me to ask. "And what exactly was that something special James had to say?"

"Well, it seems Jimmy-boy's dream girl will go out with him if Little Alby learns to speak in the presence of _his_ dream girl."

With that said, I seriously considered shoving Fred down the stairs. Why was it I was the only one that didn't know about Al's crush? Was it _so_ obvious to the world? I also felt my face burn up at the insinuation that I was Al's dream girl.

Instead of pushing Fred, though, I asked him the question he wanted me to ask for the second time in a row. "And you're telling me this because–?"

"Ah!" Fred stopped twirling my hair and patted my head before returning his hand to my dark brown locks. "That is the million galleon question! I want you to do James a favor."

I glared at Fred for the pat and sighed. "What does this–_favor_–entail?"

"Nothing! Well, almost nothing. Practically nothing!"

"Fred!"

I had to shove myself even closer to Fred, as if that were possible, to avoid walking into the corner we were turning.

"You just need to talk to Al every chance you get! Get him used to talking to you. Then he might actually be able to, you know, _talk_." Fred looked down at me sans grin. "James really likes Jen, Camry, and I think Jen likes James. She just needs a little push, and this deal could be just the right thing."

I sighed. "I know that. I can't help it if Al's uncomfortable around me, though, now can I? I don't want to string him along. I don't like him like that and I think it'd be more than a little cruel to make him think that I might."

"That would be cruel!" Fred gasped in what had to be pure mockery of me. I glared at him again. "You don't need to string him along. Just be his friend, you know? For our two friends if not for Albus."

I looked away from Fred. It probably would do wonders for Jen to have a boyfriend, get her over those fears. I figured it couldn't hurt to sit with Al in the common room every now and then. I could ask him to help me in Charms or something.

"Fine. I'll do it. But if Al gets hurt it's _your_ fault." Fred just grinned. What was with those Potter/Weasley boys? They were all so pretty!

We made the rest of the trip to the common room without talking, though Fred still held onto me. Because I was feeling a little flirty too, I put my arm around his waist. I almost laughed out loud because he started humming the wedding march.

We got to the Fat Lady and she sighed wistfully at us. "Ah, to be in the throes of young love!"

It was at this point we let go of each other. "Um..." he looked at me. I giggled. Someone didn't know the password!

"Benediction"

The portrait swung open and I stepped through with Fred. When it closed behind us I felt my heart sink, it was like the closing of a cage. I was used to the feeling, though, since it was the same feeling I had gotten every night since coming to Hogwarts first year, and made my way to the girls dormitories.

"What?" Fred shouted across the room at me, drawing a lot of attention. "No good night kiss?"

I turned around to glance at him, completely unable to help the smile on my face. I did manage to not laugh, though, and I was proud of that. "Not tonight!"

With that said, I rolled my eyes and made my way up the stairs. I opened the door to the sixth year girls room and saw that no one was ready for bed, or even in the process of getting ready.

"How was the walk?" Annily grinned at me from her bed in the corner. "Get the jitters out?"

"Almost." I would never get _all_ the jitters out so long as I was faced with being locked up every night.

I decided to lead the herd and get ready for bed. I grabbed my nighttime things out of my trunk, nighttime things that I had so cleverly put in at the very top of the pile in my trunk, and went into the toilet. It seemed that I was right in the thought that the other girls would follow my lead, though, as they followed me in.

Every year had their own washroom. Three stalled toilets, two large sinks, two large mirrors over the sinks, and five bathtubs with curtains around them. Each bathtub had a shower rack for towels, and a small stool for clothes next to it. The bathrooms weren't exactly the most private areas in the world.

Fortunately for me, as well as the other four sixth year girls, I was friends with all of the girls in my year so there were no serious issues with it. There were girls in other years who had screaming matches over the toilet.

First year we created a bathroom system. We each picked a tub that would be ours, and that the other girls weren't allowed to use. The sinks worked by priority, If I was doing my hair and Annily wanted to brush her teeth, I would have to back away so she could; if Emily had just used the toilet and needed to wash her hands Annily would have to step back; after Emily was done, Annily would get the sink back; if Vanessa wanted to do her hair, then she would have to wait for me to be done because I was there first.

The only issue with the bathrooms we ever had was with being naked in front of each other. The bathtubs turn on the second a person steps inside at the temperature that person prefers to have for a shower. That meant we couldn't get in, take our clothes off, and then turn on the water. At first we would change in a toilet stall, wrap a towel around ourselves, and jump into the shower as fast as we could. As the years went on, and we all ended up seeing each other naked at least once, we gave up on modesty.

Which led to the first night of sixth year. Annily was the only girl in our year that took showers in the morning, because her hair was so short it was a mess when she woke up and the only way she could fix it was by showering. So she went straight to the sink, and the rest up us stripped down, completely indifferent to the fact that there were others in the room, and jumped into our individual showers.

"I smell vanilla!" Emily shouted over the water.

"That's me! James might not have seen me over summer, but he sent me vanilla body wash and shampoo for my birthday!"

"Can I use it?" Emily had always loved everything vanilla scented.

"Yeah! I'm done with it now, so just come over here and get it."

It was at that moment Vanessa's hand appeared in my shower. I laughed, and handed her my body wash. She always forgot her own body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and/or toothpaste and always ended up having her mother owl them to her.

After we were all showered, and our teeth were all brushed, and all of our other nighttime rituals were finished, we were all laying in our respective beds and talking about our summers.

"Australia was great! I _love _surfing. It's amazing!" Jen sighed wistfully. "I think I'm going to go live down there after Hogwarts."

"After Hogwarts?" Annily asked as if it were a foreign concept to her. We had never actually talked about our plans for after school as a group. I guess no one had with Annily at all.

"Yeah. They've got this magazine down there called _leFay_. It's a woman's magazine about fashion, sex, food, and just about anything else a woman would want in her magazine."

"Why?" I had to ask, I couldn't believe Annily sounded so unprepared for the comment. "Don't you know what you want to do after Hogwarts?"

"I never really thought about it." Annily didn't really sound too concerned. "Why? Do you all know what you want to do?"

"I'm going to be a writer for a fashion magazine." Jen's answer was quick. She'd known since before Hogwarts what she wanted to do afterwards.

Emily sighed. "I'm hoping for professional Quidditch, but I'm not counting on it or anything. I'll work at the Ministry in the Department of Magical Transportation with my Mum."

"I'm going to be a Healer."

I looked over at Vanessa. One day she just told me that she was going to be a Healer no matter what, and refused to say more on the subject.

"Cam?"

I looked over at Annily. She wanted to know my plans for after Hogwarts. "Not sure. I'll probably be a potion maker for the Apothecary in Diagon Alley or something." I did have a part-time job there the last two summers, so it probably _was_ where I was going to end up.

"Bleak."

I nodded. It was bleak, but I had no other ideas. I could work at the ministry, but what would I do there? Send letters to underage kids who use magic? Put splinched couples back together after they apparated illegally? Now _that_ was bleak.

"What about you?" Jen asked. "Why haven't you thought about it?"

"My Dad has lots of money. I can afford to drift for a while." That she could. "I guess I shouldn't say I haven't thought about it at all, I just try not to because I have no idea."

"I can relate." I really could, too. I had no idea what to do after Hogwarts. I wasn't even sure if I was going to pass any of my NEWT courses. OWLs had been tough enough to last me a lifetime.

I giggled when Emily let out a loud yawn, making it clear to all that talking was no longer allowed. She was a light sleeper, and did _not_ take kindly to being woken up before she needed to be. After a round of "Good Night"s, we all turned out our lights and went to bed.

I tried really hard to ignore the fact that I was stuck in a limited space with seventy plus people.

oooOoooOoooOooo

No Camry/Albus interaction in this chapter. Not much of anything really, but it'll pick up after this chapter is over. This chapter was mostly just for me, so I could get a handle on Camry's voice.

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Flames Encouraged_


	3. Dumbfounded

Chapter Title: Dumbfounded

Chapter Summary: Camry makes her first attempt at befriending Albus, has an argument or two, and gets her class schedule.

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I struggled not to frown as Professor Longbottom steadily made his way down the Gryffindor table towards me. The first breakfast of sixth year. That meant one thing. I had to choose my NEWT level courses. I chewed my lip. My OWL results had been less than ideal, so my options were rather limited.

I stared down at my breakfast as Professor Longbottom and Vanessa discussed her many options. She got three E's and the rest were O's on her OWL exams. Note my jealousy. Fifth year was easily the worst year of my life.

"Ah! Miss Finch-Fletchley! Let us see what classes you'll be taking your final two years here at Hogwarts, shall we?"

"If we must." I looked up into his smiling face. He was always being extra nice to me. My mother said it was because he wasn't all that great in school either, and he was taking pity on me. I never knew if I should believe her though, my mother is a quack after all.

"It looks like you passed your Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL!"

"Barely." I answered him. I barely managed an A, and that was with me practically acing the written portion! Unfortunately for me, and maybe one or two others, Defense Against the Dark Arts became required for all students all seven years after the war ended. If someone failed their OWL in that course, they had to take the fifth year one over again.

"Well, it's fortunate for you! What other classes do you wish to take? I'm assuming Potions?"

I felt my spirits lift at the mention. I grinned. "Yeah!" I got an O in that class!

"What else?"

I sighed and thought about it. After getting my grades, I had tried to push the thought of classes out of my mind. It was then that I realized I could drop classes. I could _stop_ taking the ones I sucked at! Well, not including Defense Against the Dark Arts, but still! "I'm dropping Transfiguration and Charms."

Professor Longbottom frowned at me. "Are you sure you want to drop those? You don't want to take any practical magic courses?"

"I failed Transfiguration, and I only got an A in Charms." I didn't want to take them. I'd blow up the school in the advanced courses!

"Still, though, an A is all you need for Charms. I'll sign you up for that as well."

I opened my mouth to argue, but changed my mind. It probably wouldn't hurt me to take Charms. No, it'd just hurt whomever had the misfortune of sitting next to me.

"Alright. Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, and–?"

"Herbology, Astronomy, and–" I sighed wistfully at the thought of losing my History of Magic, and scowled at the thought of the class Mum was forcing me to take. "Divination."

Professor Longbottom looked slightly uncomfortable. "You received a T on your Divination OWL."

"Mum made a few calls." and that was all he needed to hear to know that I was allowed to take the class. He handed me my schedule, and continued his way down the table. I immediately compared schedules with the girls.

I had Potions with Vanessa and Emily, Astronomy with Jen, Herbology with Annily, Divination with Jen, all four in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and none of them in Charms. That was probably for the best, I figured, I would need to really focus in Charms.

I felt something hit the back of my head, and looked down to see a roll on my plate that hadn't been there before. I looked to see who threw it and saw it had been Fred. He looked at me, then at Al. I sighed. It was as good a time as any, I supposed.

"I'll be right back." I told the girls, and got up and made my way to Al.

He was talking to Ashton Davies, a sixth year boy, and didn't see me approaching. It was strange to hear him talking so coherently. I sat down next to him, and Ashton got a strange look on his face–he obviously knew of Al's apparently infamous crush on me as well–and he pointed at me.

Al turned around, and the change in his demeanor was visible. He stiffened up, his eyes went wide, and his face turned red. I gave him the biggest smile I could. "Hey, Al! I was just wondering if I could see your schedule? You know, see if we have any classes together."

He just stared at me, a furious blush covering his cheeks. "Al? Your schedule?"

His mouth started opening and closing for a bit, I waited patiently. "Oh! My schedule. Right. Of course. You want to see it. Duh. That was rather obvious wasn't it? I'll get it out for you right now. Just hold on one second, okay?"

I tuned out his rambling at that point and waited with, what I hoped, a kind smile for him to hand me his schedule. When he finally did I looked down at it. We had a couple classes together. "Looks like we have Charms together Al! That's great, I don't have any other friends in that class, so we'll sit together, right?"

"Uh–yeah, of course we will! Why wouldn't we? Yeah, Charms will be fun. We'll have lots of fun in Charms. We'll have a blast in Charms, even!"

I smiled at him. I really was genuinely flattered by his affections. He was a nice, famous, good looking guy. It was true that until the day before I always kind of thought he was a little slow, but now that I knew why he acted that way it was a little less annoying and a little more endearing. Yeah, I thought, I can do Fred's favor. I can be this guy's friend.

"Definitely!" I laughed. "Okay, so I have to get back to the girls, but I'll see you later in Defense Against the Dark Arts, since we've got that too!"

"Yeah. You'll see me." Al's face was bright red, but his voice had come out solid and steady for the first time that I'd ever heard. Maybe James was right about going out with Jen by Halloween? Who knew?

I got up and went back to the girls. Jen was staring at me with a heartbroken look on her face. I felt my heart fall into my stomach. I never even stopped to think about how she would react to my trying to start a friendship with Al. It was then it dawned on me that Jen really did fear relationships, she was terrified of having her heart broken.

In Jen's eyes I was helping James Potter to break her heart.

"Why were you talking to him?"

Her voice cracked. Jen's voice never cracked. Not ever. She was way too strong for her voice to crack. She was strong and confident and never frightened. What was it about James that spooked her so much?

I tried to think of something to say, something that would restore her faith in our friendship, faith that I could see in her eyes was lost. Nothing came to me. Nothing ever came to when in the moments I needed something to come to me.

So I did what I always do.

"Why can't I talk to him?" and I said it in the bitchiest tone I could muster too.

"I can't believe you're helping James Potter when you _know_ I don't want to date him!" Jen whispered. The tone in her voice cut me deep.

But once I start I'm physically incapable of stopping. "If you didn't want to date him you shouldn't have agreed, you moron."

I didn't wince at my comment, but Vanessa, Emily, and Annily all did. One thing Jen hated more than anything else was having her intelligence questioned. She wasn't a genius by any means, but most people assumed she was an idiot because she was as beautiful as she was.

Jen's lips pressed together, forming a thin line, and I knew she was angry. She glared at me for a minute, but I didn't apologize. I knew my insult hurt her, but I couldn't say sorry. I just couldn't. Later I knew I would be able to, but in that moment I couldn't.

"I've known you for years Cam. Because of that I know you didn't mean what you just said, and I know you feel bad about it. I'm going to leave before you're stupidity and bitchy streak permanently damage our friendship."

With that Jen got up and stormed out of the Great Hall.

I was relieved to say the least. I hated it when my temper lashed out at my friends. I really did. Because they were my friends I knew exactly what to say to them to hurt them the most, and I always went directly for the throat.

"Calm yet?"

I looked over at Vanessa and noticed that Emily and Annily must have followed Jen out to make sure she was okay. Vanessa was the only sixth year Gryffindor girl at the table, and she was glaring at me.

"I didn't mean it." I frowned. Now that I was calm I felt even more horrible and wanted nothing more than to chase after Jen to apologize.

"Why did you say it then?" Vanessa snapped at me. I never knew how, but Vanessa had always been able to make me feel very tiny when she scolded me.

"She cornered me!"

Vanessa just rolled her eyes at me. I sighed. "I'm sorry I said it!"

She rolled her eyes again. "I know that!" Vanessa took her turn to sigh. "Come on, we've got double potions."

Even though I felt guilty as hell, the thought of Potions picked up my spirits considerably. That made me feel even more guilty, but I couldn't help it. Potions always brightened my day.

"Let's go then."

To my credit, I tried _really_ hard not to let my enthusiasm show! I really did.

We were almost to the door when Margo Baker, also leaving the Great Hall, rammed herself into me, sending me sprawling out on the floor. I looked back up at her and she smirked at me. Actually _smirked_.

"Oops. Sorry. Didn't see you."

And then she left.

I heard Vanessa mutter "Bitch" under her breath as she helped me up. I couldn't help but agree. Margo was a Ravenclaw in our year. She had always been a little rude, but never out right mean. I had no idea how, but it seemed like I had done something to offend the dark haired girl.

By the time we were seated in Potions, it seemed I had been forgiven for my misdeeds at breakfast. Emily came in and sat down with a smile, saying the Jen was okay and wasn't angry. I was extremely relieved. I hated the idea that I hurt her. I had to come up with something to say to her about trying to start a friendship with Al before I saw her after lunch in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I intended to avoid her at lunch.

"Alright class, I think you'll all have noticed the different potions on your desks..."

My attentions were focused solely on Professor Slughorn as soon as he began to speak. I loved Potions class. Everything about it.

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Hey, thanks for reading, and Maliaphire for the review! I appreciate it. Reviews are my food. I eat them for breakfast!

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I am posting _Character Sketches_ for the characters in the story on my livejournal. You can find a link to it in my profile. I also have Camry's schedule posted, and I'll probably put up other random little bits and pieces regarding this fic onto my livejournal.

_**Reviews Appreciated  
**__Flames Encouraged_


	4. Nascence

Chapter Title: Nascence

Chapter Summary: Camry has her first Charms class with Albus, and accidently spends her free period with Fred and James.

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"And I was like, if you didn't want me to hit the bludger at you then you shouldn't have tried out for Quidditch!"

I leaned back against the tree, wiping the tears from my eyes. Jen and I had made up in Defense Against the Dark Arts when I explained to her that I just wanted to get to know Albus, as he had just become a romantic option and I wanted to know if I was interested. She bought it too.

That leads me to the next day at lunch. The girls and I had gone out to sit under the tree by the lake for lunch. They all thought that I needed some cheering up; I had Divination first on Tuesdays, and Defense Against the Dark Arts third. Having Potions in between was not enough to raise my spirits, so they brought me out to the tree and proceeded to make me laugh until my stomach hurt.

"Oh!" I looked over at Vanessa. "Classes start up again soon. We should head back in."

"Really?" Annily scrunched up her nose, looking at her watch.

"Time really does fly, then?" Jen giggled, still not over Emily's last story.

I grabbed my bag and stood up. I only had Charms that afternoon because I had Astronomy that day and, apparently, they try to give those in NEWT level Astronomy one free period every day they have it so they can keep up with their course load.

I was pretty happy about that. A free period every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday? How awesome is that?

"So. First Charms class, huh?" Vanessa grinned at me as we separated from the rest of the group after we entered the castle.

I frowned. "Why is it that for practical magical classes they give us four a week? And Herbology, Astronomy, and Potions, the classes I actually _want_ to take, only three times a week? And last but not least, why is Divination considered a _practical_ magic course?" I stopped for a breath. "It's complete rubbish!"

Vanessa was looking at me like I was insane. "I was referring to sitting next to Albus for seventy-five minutes without being able to run back to me when conversation gets too awkward."

"Oh." I felt my cheeks heat up. Well then.

Vanessa laughed at me as we got to the point we had to separate. "I'll see you later!"

"Bye!" I waved and made my way down to Charms class.

Now that she mentioned it, I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending a whole seventy-five minutes with Albus. I was more than content to talk with him a couple of minutes at a time, ease him into the whole we-actually-have-some-kind-of-relationship thing I was trying to get started.

I was almost to the classroom when I felt a strong arm wrap itself around my shoulders and pull me into a very nice male form. I rolled my eyes and failed miserably at suppressing a smile. I didn't even need to look in order to know it was the flirty, dark-haired Fred Weasley who, it seemed, had taken a liking to my hair.

I knew because Fred was the only boy who walked up to me randomly and put his arm around me and played with my hair, and didn't even pause or slow down his pace. Secretly, I was impressed with his ability to do so.

"What can I do for you Freddy, dear?" I had decided, after he did this exact same thing to me the day before on my way to supper, that I would play along with him when he acted like this. Sure, Fred and I had never really interacted before, but I was pretty comfortable around him and he did amuse the hell out of me.

"I just wanted to wish you luck, my lady dearest." Fred tugged on a strand of my bangs, the only part of my hair not tucked securely into the messy bun on top of my head. "Al came into our dorm–when I say our, I mean Jimmy-boy's and mine–and talked our ears off over how he was going to be sitting with you last night."

I rolled my eyes once again and felt my cheeks heat up. "Thank for the support, but I've got to get to class."

I shrugged his arm off and turned into my Charms class. I saw Al immediately, off to the side a bit where I usually sat in all my classes. I didn't know if I should be flattered that he sat where I preferred to sit, or uncomfortable that he paid such close attention.

Fred, though, didn't seem content to just let me walk into my Charms class all calm and unnoticed. No, he decided that I couldn't walk into the room unless he yelled after me, causing everyone to stare at me.

"WHAT? STILL NO KISS?"

I sighed, and knew–just _knew_–that my face was bright red. I quickly hurried over to Al, trying my best to ignore the amused look and sniggers that followed me. I looked up at him after I sat down and saw he was actually trying not to smile. The fact that Albus Potter–the boy who is, apparently, completely gripped by me–thought it was funny actually amused me. Nice to know he's not the jealous type, eh?

I took a deep breath and swallowed my embarrassment. I needed to tell him this before class started. "I feel I should warn you, I suck at Charms."

"And any other practical magic course."

The words seemed to slip out of Al's mouth before he could stop them, and then it was his turn to go completely red in the face. I was shocked into silence for a minute. Had he just teased me?

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry–"

I cut Al off before he could finish stuttering out his apology. "No worries. I'm perfectly aware of my own talents. Or lack there of, as it were."

I smiled at him, and wasn't surprised in the least when his attempt at a smile back turned into something more similar to a grimace. Maybe James wasn't on the right track when he said he'd be going out with Jen by Halloween after all?

I shrugged, and turned to the rapidly aging Professor Flitwick as he began the lesson. I could feel Al's eyes on me every couple of minutes. I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with it, and was extremely relieved when Flitwick waved his wand and a small quiz showed up on every desk. I could do the theory part of it, and it would hold Al's attention for a bit, so I was pretty happy to be receiving it.

The small quiz turned out to be a very long test covering everything we'd learned from first year all the way up to the end of fifth and took up all of class. I had just barely finished the last question when the loud mosquito-like buzzing signaled the end of class.

I didn't have another class until that night with Astronomy so I gathered up my things and decided to walk with Al to his next class.

"What do you have?" I asked as we headed in, what I assumed, was the direction of his classroom.

"Me? Oh, uh, I have, uh, Transfiguration. I think." His face was red.

I wrinkled my nose, and let the conversation fall. I was more than content to walk in silence. I took that moment to wonder what Albus Potter would look like if he weren't blushing. He was a very good looking boy, but I assumed he would look much better if his face matched the nice, if slightly pale, shade of his hands.

We turned the corner and I saw James and Fred off to the distance. I don't know how they did it, but they went from laughing and joking together to immediately noticing Al and I walking around the corner. Maybe they had "the sight"? Notice my sarcasm. No, they didn't have "the sight," but they were extremely observant. Abnormally so.

Al didn't seem to notice they were there, because he turned to the door of McGongall's class and sighed. I felt my cheeks heat up a little at his sigh, as he sounded disappointed to have arrived. It was also that moment I realized just how much Albus Potter seemed to make me blush; I'd never had a boy like me like that before and I found it to be quite embarrassing, even if extremely flattering.

"This is my class."

I smiled at him. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, I have Astronomy later tonight so I should probably head back to the common room and do my homework while I can."

I tried to think of some final words, but nothing came. Albus smiled at me, and stuttered out a shy "I had fun."

I laughed. "Yeah, me too. I like a guy who doesn't try to force the conversation." I winked at him. "Well, I'm going to go before I make you late."

Al nodded, and I waved at him as I continued down the hall. It wasn't long until I was sandwiched between both James and Fred. I sighed and resigned myself to my fate. I was forever destined to be the recipient of strange, somewhat inappropriate, physical contact from the very handsome Fred Weasley, and, it seemed, the equally handsome James Potter.

For some mysterious reason I just couldn't bring myself to mind. I was a teenaged girl, who could blame me really?

Neither seemed to be in all that much of a hurry, so I decided to start the conversation. "And what can I do for you boys?"

"Well, Camry, darling, Jimmy-boy here has something he wants to say to you." Fred's hand had once again found its way to my hair. What was with him and my hair?

"Really now? What does Jimmy-boy have to say to me?" I turned to James, and noticed with no small amount of satisfaction that he frowned at my use of Fred's nickname for him. I'm not going to pretend that I hadn't heard how much he hated being called that.

"Yes, Jimmy-boy?" Fred prompted. I could tell from Fred's voice that he was goading James. I really hoped they wouldn't get into a fight when I was, in the most literal sense, in the middle of them.

"Well, Camry, you see, I want to thank you." James's frown just seemed to fall off of his face and was replaced with the largest grin I'd ever seen in my life. I doubted very much that I would ever see a grin larger.

I nodded. I'd figured as much. James continued. "I know Albus is pretty much hopeless, but I'm counting on you to stick with it. I consider you talking to Al to be the start of my relationship with Jen, you know."

I scoffed, but didn't say anything. My parents had both told me that his father had been a little on the high and mighty side at school, so I assumed he hadn't sounded that arrogant intentionally. Like I was doing it for him? Please!

Instead, I smiled at him. "Anything for Jen."

"Exactly!" James stepped away from me so that he could clap his hands together. "Anything for Jen."

"Jimmy-boy is whipped and he hasn't even gotten any yet."

I tried not to. I really did. I couldn't help it though, when Fred's comment was mixed in with the glare James was shooting at him, I laughed. I didn't just laugh, no, that would be to dignified and lady-like. No, I laughed, and wheezed, and coughed, and snorted, and hiccoughed, and hollered like a banshee. I couldn't help it. I really couldn't. The whole situation was just too ridiculous.

It was too much like one of those moving story things on one of those muggle tilly things.

I don't know how long I was laughing before Fred and James joined in on my hysteria, and I don't know if they started laughing because of the way I was or because they found humor in the situation like I did, but they were laughing just as hard as I was nearing the end.

As I calmed down, I noticed that classes had started. James and Fred were both chuckling still, and holding their stomachs. They didn't even realize. "Don't you two have classes?"

"Free period. Have Astronomy later tonight." James shrugged, turning in the direction of our common room. His shoulders were still shaking with mirth.

"Why aren't you in class?" Fred raised an eye brow at me, while I furrowed mine.

"How can you two have Astronomy when I do?"

Fred clapped. "Oh, yay! You're in our class with us!"

I shook my head and looked to James. He rolled his eyes at Fred before answering my question. "NEWT level Astronomy is pretty much independent study. We are given assignments and we do them. That's it, really, so they just combined both sixth and seventh years."

"Oh."

"Well if it isn't the young lovers, and that Potter boy too. Is he bothering the both of you? Did he interrupt your little tryst?" The Fat Lady, it seemed, had gotten it into her head that Fred and I were a couple. I didn't care enough to correct her.

It appeared that Fred was determined to encourage her though. "Why yes he did! I am very angry about it too." He turned to James. "How dare you try to interfere with a new relationship like this! I know you think she's hot and that you want in on the action, but you have to learn to listen James! I asked her if she was up to it and she said no. Do hear, James? No means no."

By the end of Fred's tirade both James and I were thoroughly embarrassed and I quickly said the password as The Fat Lady began telling James off for being a pervert. We both rushed in as Fred walked in calmly and slowly with a very proud grin on his face.

We both stared at him. He just continued to grin and then clapped his hands together. "Who's up for a nice, friendly game of Exploding Snap?"

James and I exchanged a look. A look that said exactly what we were both thinking. What we were both thinking was _friendly game my ass_.

We both gave our exact same answers at the exact same time.

"I'm up for one."

oooOoooOoooOooo

Thanks for reading all the way through. I've decided what role Fred is going to play in the long run of this story, yay!

On an even happier note: I'm officially unemployed! YES! No longer will I have to accept the boss's daughter's bitchy and condescending attitude with a smile. No, now when I see her and she treats me like I'm mentally challenged I can tell her where to stuff her oversized head! YAY!

P.S. Sorry for any errors, and I realize it's moving rather slowly, but the story will pick up soon enough.

Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged


	5. Capricious

Author: WonderGirl-Marie, soon to be KlassyMarie

Chapter Title: Capricious

Chapter Summary:

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait! Updates may be few and far between, but I promise this story will get finished! Honest!

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"Almost, you have to swing with the wrist though."

"Like this?"

"Yeah, like that. Okay try the spell now."

A month into the school year and I already needed extra help in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Vanessa, gods bless her, had volunteered. I was starting to seriously fear for my life. The girl had the patience of a saint, and I was pushing it with my total ineptitude for learning magic and I had no desire to incur her wrath. I seriously needed to get this spell right.

"_Salvio hexiaI_"

Now, see, _Salvio Hexia_ is a protection spell, delays the enemy's perception of you. When I cast the spell, however, Vanessa's backpack started dancing. I even saw Vanessa roll her eyes, I swear!

I frowned and, quite violently, shoved my wand into my pocket. "Look, this isn't working, and I have to meet Al in the Library, so . . . "

Vanessa waved her wand at her backpack and, without saying a single word, it fell back to the ground as motionless as a backpack should be. "Charms help, or is this a social call?"

I snorted. "Charms help." Social call, ha! I may be talented, but I can't work miracles–like I would have been able to form a non-blushing friendship with him in a month!

"Well, I need to talk to Professor Longbottom so I'll see you later." Vanessa smiled at me, not even hiding her relief at no longer being stuck tutoring me as she left in a hurry.

I shook my head at her and left in the other direction. I was nearly at the Library when Margo Baker walked out of a room and directly into my path. I was fully prepared to walk around her, but when I stepped to the side she quickly followed.

I frowned and stopped. She had been _accidentally_ bumping into me since classes started up. Apparently, she had decided to confront me when I had no other friends around. Class act, that one.

"Can I help you?"

"You could die." Margo crossed her arms over her chest, adopting a defensive stance.

I balked at her words. "Excuse me?" Seriously, we had never spoken more than fifteen words to each other since we met.

"Look, I was willing to let it go when it was impossible, but you're making it seem possible and that doesn't work for me."

And at those words only one word filled my mind. "Huh?"

Margo rolled her eyes at me. "Don't play stupid, it suits you just a little too well."

I gritted my teeth for a second. "Look, I don't know what your problem is but I have somewhere I need to be."

I moved to step around her, but once again she stepped into my way.

"My _problem_," she growled–no, seriously growled–at me, "is you playing with Albus's emotions. I won't stand for it. I was willing to let him pine so long as he knew it'd never happen, but you're giving him thoughts that it _might_ actually happen and I won't have it."

I shook my head and raised my hand. "Wait, you're giving me a hard time because I'm friends with Al?"

"_Friends_? You think you're _friends_? Please! You're nothing but a nice, _cheap_, piece of a-"

"Stop right there!" I glared at her. I had never seen her talking to Al, I had no idea he was friends with such an arrogant woman! "We _are_ friends, and if you ever even _try _to call me what you were about to call me I will kill you."

She raised her eye brows. "Be careful little Camry, you _don't_ want me as your enemy. Leave Albus alone."

Before I could respond, she turned and stormed off. I stayed frozen in my spot for several moments. I couldn't believe that girl! As if I would ever! She called him Albus. He hated being called Albus! She couldn't be all that close to him if she didn't even know that.

I shook my head and continued on to the Library, deciding to ignore what had just happened. I turned the corner and I could see its entrance when Margo's voice made it's way, unbidden, into my thoughts.

_Look, I was willing to let it go when it was impossible, but you're making it seem possible and that doesn't work for me._ I froze mid step. Now, seeing as how I had one foot still in the air when I seized up, I ended up tumbling forward. I grabbed at the wall for balance and, after a few moments of doubt, I managed to stay standing on my own two feet. Later I would be very proud of myself for that, but at that moment all I could think about were those words.

What if Margo was a good friend of Al's? What if she called him Albus because they were so close that he didn't mind? Was she right? Was I letting Al think there was a chance between us? I felt sick at the thought. I didn't want to string him along. Yeah, I liked the attention but I wasn't interested. I couldn't stand the thought of him not going for a girl that really _was_ interested because he thought that I wanted him like that.

I sighed. Now I had to tell him; actually say the words. I rubbed my forehead and walked the rest of the short distance to the Library. I looked around for Al's dark head and ended up seeing him sitting at the far edge.

As I made my way to him I felt a weight in my chest. I had never had to turn someone down before. Hell, I'd had one boyfriend in my life and _he_ broke up with _me_. I forced a smile as I sat down. Al was preoccupied with his notes. He looked all sweet and innocent. I didn't want to tell him out loud.

"Hey."

He jumped and looked up at me. He blushed and smiled back. "Hi."

Better. He was getting better. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"Oh, uh, I was thinking we'd go over the theoretical parts." Al started digging through his notes.

I frowned. "But I know the theory."

"If you knew the theory, you'd be able to do the spells." Al's face flushed so red that I thought he was going to pass out. He'd gotten better at talking. His blushes hadn't gotten any better, actually, I thought that might have gotten worse.

"But I know the theory! I ace all the written tests." I could have sworn I saw Al roll his eyes at me for a second.

"You've got the words memorized, yeah, but you don't actually understand any of it." I opened my mouth to respond but couldn't think of anything and closed it with an audible snap.

"Fine. Teach me theory!"

I don't know how much time we spent hunched over Al's Charms book. I mostly paid attention to what he was explaining, but a part of my mind couldn't shake the feeling that I was hurting him but not saying anything.

In the end I decided to gather up my Gryffindor courage and confront this head on. We were finished studying and everything was put away when I broached to subject.

"Al?" I grabbed his arm as he stood up. When his head snapped to where my hand touched his arm I pulled it back like I had been burned. "Could we talk a minute?"

"Uh, um, yeah. Sure." Al sat down at looked at me. Oh gods, he looked hopeful!

"I just, I wanted to tell–no, ask–you something." I started wringing my hands together.

Al just stared silently at me with that hopeful look on his face. I just wanted to run away and pretend to not be a Gryffindor.

"Well, um, see it's like this–" I took a deep breath. "you and I, we're _friends_, right?"

I saw it happen before my very eyes. Al's face fell, and then became stiff at the way I stressed friends. Then he nodded.

"Yeah. Friends. I have to meet Ash and Don out by the lake." Al got up and left without a glance back.

"Bye." I said pointlessly and waved pathetically before leaving to find Vanessa. I found her quite easily. She was reading Hogwarts: A History in the Sixth Year Girls' dorm. I didn't even hesitate, I grabbed the book from her and threw myself across her lap, and proceeded to tell her about my day.

I left Margo out of it.

"Well, you did say you didn't want to lead him on, right? So this is good." Vanessa took off her glasses and put them on the night stand next to her bed.

"Yeah, but he looked so hurt!" I sighed and pulled my hair out of its bun and then pulled it back into a pony tail.

Vanessa shrugged. "Better to hurt him a little now than to break his heart later. Besides, maybe now he'll get a girlfriend and really want to be just friends with you?"

"Maybe." I frowned and groaned before rolling over and burying my head in her pillow.

Maybe.

oooOoooOoooOooo

Thanks for reading, and sorry again for the long wait!

On the plus side, I am officially a high school graduate! And of the plus-er side, I totally graduated with honors!!

_Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged_


	6. Summation

Chapter Title: Summation

Chapter Summary: Camry discovers that Al was offended when she asked if they were 'just friends.' She has another confrontation with Margo, and bonds with Jenessa. She makes a decision concerning Jen.

A/N: So, I've actually got all the way up to chapter ten planned out. I know, I'm shocked too. It's looking like chapter 8 is going to be the chapter where the shoe starts to turn. That is subject to change though.

**Oh! And...** _I have made a banner for this story_. It's not very good as I am challenged when it comes to that sort of thing, but you can find it on my livejournal under the post called "A Banner for Preserving Consequence" Only the posts with personal information are friends-only so everyone should be able to view that one.

Also, Camry's class schedule, if anyone was curious, is posted in my livejournal under the post called "Preserving Consequence Character Sketch #2"

_The link to my livejournal is in my profile._

A/N Again: Did the last chapter suck or something? Zero reviews? That made me sad. Don't you all worry though, I'm not going to hold chapters hostage or anything. I'm not going to say "I won't update until I get _x_ many reviews" cause I think that's a crappy thing to do. But still, I'd like some reviews! Even if they're just "good chapter," "bad chapter," "Update soon," or "For the love of God, abandon this story!" I don't care! I just want reviews! Reviews inspire me to write! Don't you want me inspired to write? Don't you realize that if I am inspired then I am going to update more often? Don't you?! I LOVE REVIEWS, THE SUSTAIN ME!!

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I walked down to breakfast on Monday without a care in the world. I had double potions first thing, my hair was perfect, the zit on my nose had magically disappeared in my sleep, my eye brows actually matched, and I had all of my assignments finished even though none of them were due. It was the start of what was promising to be a very good day.

I sat down at the Gryffindor table with Vanessa and Annily and began to place assorted fruits and dairy products on my plate. I was happily munching on my orange-slice-dipped-in-strawberry-banana-yogurt when Fred sat down next to me and, predictably, used one arm to wrap around my shoulders and pull me to him and used the other to play with my hair. My hair which was down and flowing over my shoulders that day, instead of in my usual bun or ponytail, because it was perfect.

I seriously don't think you appreciate just how absolutely _amazing_ my hair was looking!

"Ladies." Fred nodded at Annily and Vanessa. Annily giggled, convinced that Fred was perfection personified, and Vanessa rolled her eyes.

"To what do we owe this pleasurable visit on this fine morning?" I grinned at him. My day was too good! Being held against Fred's body was only making it better. I was quickly finding his chest more and more comfy.

"Good mood?"

"Damn good."

Fred sighed. "Well, then maybe you won't mind explaining why Al is in a so-very-_not_-good mood?"

"Um..." I looked over Fred's shoulder and saw that Albus was indeed frowning. "His eye brows don't match?"

Fred gave me a look. "What?" I asked. "I'm always in a bad mood when my eye brows don't match!"

"It's true." Vanessa laughed. "She won't leave her room until she fixes them, and she always ends up just making them worse until Jen does it for her."

Annily frowned. "What's wrong with that? I'm the same way."

I nodded. "Solidarity sister!"

"Yeah!" Annily cheered.

We high fived.

"Even so..." Fred looked at us like we'd all just grown third arms. "I doubt that's why Al is upset."

Vanessa shrugged. "It's probably because Cam gave him the 'just friends' talk yesterday."

Fred's grip on my shoulders tightened for a barely noticeable second. I scoffed. "No way! I mean, I never gave him any indication I was interested so it's not like it was a huge shock or anything! I treated him the same way I treat Fred!" I jabbed my thumb in his direction. I looked at him "You don't think I like you, do you?"

"Everyone likes me."

"Seriously."

"I am serious! But no, I don't think you want to jump my bones. I do however think you must have issues for _not_ wanting to."

I looked at Vanessa. "See? Not the problem."

"Please! A guy hears the word friends come out of his crush's mouth and his mood instantly plummets!" Annily announced, rather loudly. I looked over Fred's shoulder again and thanked whatever deity it was that prevented Al from hearing her.

"A little louder, I don't think Al quite heard you!"

Annily rolled her eyes and waved me off. "It's true though. I told Jackson Davies that I just wanted to be friends in third year and he hasn't talked to me since!" She then turned to Fred. "Well, you've got your answer!"

"Looks like!" Fred looked down at my plate. "What the bloody hell are you eating?"

"Oranges, apples, and grapes dipped in Strawberry Banana flavoured yogurt." I smiled, reminded once again of my meal. I grabbed a grape and dipped it in my yogurt, taking extra care to scoop up some extra yogurt with the tips of my fingers. I popped it in my mouth and licked my fingers and turned my grape and yogurt filled smile to Fred.

"That's gross."

I pouted as I chewed.

"It's not _that_ bad. Camry made me try it once. It wasn't _good_ but I didn't have an immediate urge to spit it out." Vanessa was one to talk. She was eating waffles topped with maple syrup, butter, jam, and grape yogurt! Talk about gross!

Now because I don't like my nutritional choices being questioned, I said just that. "You're one to talk! Maple syrup, butter, jam, and grape yogurt on waffles?"

Fred looked at Vanessa's breakfast for, what I assume is, the first time. He audibly gagged at the site. "What is wrong with you people? Not leaving your room cause your eye brows don't match and eating food that my Uncle Ron wouldn't eat! Seriously, guys aren't looking at your eye brows and Ron will eat pretty much _anything_!"

We laughed at him. "We're girls. We're supposed to make you confused and uncomfortable. It's part of our job!"

I love Vanessa. Every time she speaks, she says something else I find completely true and/or hilarious. After what Vanessa said, Fred began to chuckle with us. "That it is."

It was then that James came up to us. "Hey, where's Jen?"

"She and Emily skip breakfast three days a week. It's a part of their dietary regime!" To the casual observer Annily looked truly offended that someone would suggest Jen cheat on her diet. To Fred, Vanessa, and myself Annily looked like she was having a true blast making fun of James.

"Oh, I didn't realize..."

Annily laughed at the apologetic stance James took. "No, actually, she and Emily are doing last minute revisions to their Transfiguration assignment."

"Oh." James looked confused. "Oh." Then slightly insulted. "Oh!" And finally, amused! He chuckled a bit. He was just too adorable. Why didn't Jen want to date him again?

He shook his head. "Hey, Fred, you ready to go?"

"Yeah." Fred looked at me. "Talk to Al please?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Yeah, sure."

Fred left the Great Hall with James and I turned back to my plate. What? I wasn't going to leave a perfectly good breakfast to talk to a boy that would be there all day! _After_ I finished eating I got up and made my way over to Al.

I sat down next to him. His friend, Donald Roe, pointed at me as Al was talking about the Chudley Cannons. Al paused and looked at me. I smiled brightly, my brilliant mood having not faltered in the slightest. Al just turned back to his conversation with Donald and Ashton. I frowned for a minute before deciding that, duh! Of course he's going to finish his conversation. It'd be just plain rude not to.

But then he kept talking to them. They became increasingly uncomfortable and kept shooting me regretful looks. Then he looked at his watch and stood up from the table.

"Come on guys, we'll be late if we don't leave now."

I felt my jaw drop. Seriously drop, like the floor scraped my chin drop.

I closed my mouth and took a deep breath. No need to let one boy's petty attitude ruin my wonderful day. Just a couple deep breaths and move on. I reached into my backpack, my purple backpack with pink fuzzy straps, and pulled out my mirror. I saw my matching eye brows, zitless nose, perfect hair, and I even saw my finished potions assignment that I was going to hand in three days early when I put my mirror away.

Just like that, my damn good mood was back!

I looked back to see that Vanessa and Annily had already left. I shrugged and made my way to potions, sure that I would see Vanessa on the way. I was all the way to the dungeons before I conceded that Veronica was already in class waiting for me.

It was at that moment Margo appeared out of nowhere. Seriously, if it weren't for the fact that you can't apparate on school grounds I would have honestly believed she apparated. I didn't like her, but I had to admit, the girl had stealth.

She smiled at me like she had won some battle. Al was ignoring me so I suppose she had, in a way. "Can I help you?" I really didn't want to deal with her. She was _scary_. I'd seen her in practical lessons in Defence Against the Dark Arts and, let's just say, I would _not_ want to be on the wrong end of her wand.

"You already did. Don't worry little Camry. You did the right thing. You should always put personal safety first." She giggled. Margo actually _giggled_ at me. She giggled at me while _threatening_ me!

So much for my damn good mood. No, now it was replaced with a damn angry one.

I do not like being threatened and so I said the first thing that came into my mind. "Would you mind moving your abnormally fat ass out of the way so I can get to class?"

She looked as shocked as I was at my words. I felt kind of bad about it. No girl likes being called fat. I didn't apologize though, I just pushed my way past her and into Potions. I sat down next to Emily and slammed my books down at my feet.

"What's with you?" Emily asked, leaning away from me.

That made me feel bad. She thought I was going to attack her! That was more than enough to calm me down, though I was still angry.

I rolled my eyes. "Margo Baker has been harassing me about being friends with Al since we got back here! Just now she cornered me and said that I did the right thing cause if I hadn't then she would've hurt me!"

"Are you serious?" Vanessa leaned over Emily. "You know, I could give her a detention? Or take points from Ravenclaw?"

"Don't worry about it." I smiled, feeling a little better that Vanessa was willing to abuse her prefect powers in my defence. "I called her fat, so I think we're even for the moment."

"Really?" Emily was noticeably trying to not laugh. Margo was one of the few non-Slytherins that called her Emmet to her face. "Called her fat how?"

"I asked her to move her abnormally fat ass."

Emily lost her battle and burst out laughing.

"Am I missing something amusing Miss Rhodes?" We all snapped our attention to the front of the room where Professor Slughorn was already teaching. He didn't look happy and Emily was still laughing. Crap.

"No, sir!" was what Emily tried to say. What she actually said was "Kngh ahh Nahaha, Sirkngh!"

He raised his eye brows and turned his attention to the seats on either side of Emily which were occupied by Vanessa and myself. We both lowered our heads, and though I wasn't looking at Vanessa I _know_ she was blushing just as badly as I was.

"Do you ladies mind terribly if I continue?"

"No, sir."

"Please do, sir."

"Bahahahaha! Oh jeez! I'm in pain! Ahahaah"

Guess which one Emily said. Guess which one of us punched her in the side for it? Actually, that last one was a trick question. We both punched her in the side for it, and then she really _was_ in pain.

Later, after Defence Against the Dark Arts, that particular class would also become known as the glare-off between Margo Baker and Camry Finch-Fletchley, was over I decided to swing by the greenhouses and pick up that book Professor Longbottom promised to lend me for an assignment. It didn't take long to get down there, but it took almost a half-hour for the man to find the book 'he just had a moment ago.' Once I got my hands on it I said goodbye and ran out of there as quickly as I could without being rude.

Jen was waiting for me on the front steps. Huh. It's not weird that Jen was waiting for me, it was just weird that she was waiting for me alone. Jen had a phobia of commitment, but that phobia had nothing on her phobia of being alone.

Because I knew that if she had been waiting there for me even half as long as I'd been in the green house then she would be getting nervous fairly quickly, I ran to catch up with her.

"Hey!" I wheezed a bit. I was really out of shape.

"Hey!" Jen smiled at me. She looked relieved. Yep. She had been getting nervous about being on the steps alone. Good, that made the slightly painful stitch in my side worth it.

"What's up?" I asked, walking towards the doors. "I have to drop my books off in the room. That okay?"

"Yeah, totally okay. The girls are all up there. They came up with the idea of playing Exploding Snap until supper."

"Yeah? Why aren't you up there kicking all their arses? You're the best Exploding Snap player I've ever seen. I'd think you had the sight, you know, if that stuff wasn't all rubbish."

Jen laughed. "It's not all rubbish!"

"Sure it's not." I rolled my eyes and Jen shoved me. I laughed. "So why aren't you showing off your amazing 'seeing' abilities by beating the girls at Exploding Snap?"

"I wanted to talk to you without them adding their two cents worth every three seconds."

I frowned. "Oh?"

"Yeah, I just-" Jen started chewing on her thumb nail. "I just wanted to say that I'm thankful."

"Thankful?" This girl wasn't making any kind of sense.

"That Al isn't talking to you." I must have looked really offended because she quickly added "Not that he isn't talking to you, that came out wrong!"

I raised my eye brows. I can't raise just one, people who can are just freaks of nature. "Do go on."

"I'm thankful that I won't have to go out with James! I mean, if Al isn't talking to you he can't very well talk to you without blushing, now can he?"

I nodded. This was true. "Sounds about right."

Jen smiled, relieved.

"Why don't you want to go out with James?" I really wanted to know. She liked him. I knew she liked him.

Her smile fell off her face fairly quickly. "Look, it's like this. James is cute, really cute, and he's smart, and he's funny, and he's got a great family and a great group of friends. He has table manners! He plays Quidditch, and he loves cheese sticks as much as we do! He's wonderful, he is. He's just not–"

"Not what? Not perfect? No, he's not, but from the way you talk about him he sounds pretty perfect for you." I didn't get it.

Jen rolled her eyes and gave me a look. What did that look say? It said 'No one is perfect, I know that, I'm not waiting for a perfect guy!' "He's not a guarantee."

I choked. Literally choked. And on nothing at all! "Well, duh! No guy is!"

Jen frowned at me. "My father is divorced three times, my mother is divorced six times. Dating is what you do when you are trying to find someone to marry. I'm not going to repeat my parents' mistakes. I'll date when I find a guy that will last a lifetime and no less."

"Jenessa!" I grabbed her arm and stopped her from walking. "If you do that then you'll _never _ find a guy! You'll never get married, you'll never have a family–" I froze as I realized something else she'd never have. "you'll die a virgin!"

"I'd rather that than go through life with a broken heart!" Jen snapped. Oh. When Jen snaps it means back off.

I sighed and let go of her arm. "Okay. I'm sorry. I just don't want you to be lonely is all!"

Jen sighed too, and then took a deep breath. "I know. You don't have to worry about me though! I'm a big girl. I can tie my own shoes and everything."

I smiled.

We started walking again. We turned a corner and saw Albus hanging out with his little sister, Lily. Lily was a fourth year Hufflepuff that was easily the prettiest girl at Hogwarts. Well, second prettiest, as Jen was still a bit prettier than her. They were laughing and pushing each other. It made me wish I had siblings.

I blame my mother for my being an only child. Dad probably woke up one day and realized all that hair loss came from having to take care of me _and_ Mum, and drew the line.

We continued on our way past them and I sighed. "You know, the Potters are really close to each other."

"They are. Makes you wonder what it'd be like with brothers and sisters." Jen nodded.

I looked at her for a moment. "Um, don't you have, like, seven brothers and sisters?"

"I have four _step_-brothers and five _step_-sisters. And it's not the same thing. You can't just be put into a house with someone and suddenly call them family." Jen shrugged and put an arm around my shoulders. "Nah, doesn't matter anyway. You girls are all the family I need."

That warmed my heart. Yeah, I loved Jen and the rest of the girls like family, but I'd never heard one of them admit the same thing to me. Albeit, I never actually told any of them that I considered them family, so I guess it's all the same.

Nevertheless, though! Jen just called me family. "I love you."

"I love you too!" Jen grinned at me. She turned to the Fat Lady. Wow, I hadn't even noticed we'd arrived.

"I thought you were dating that boy? The one with the perverted friend?" The Fat Lady frowned at me. "Does he know you're also seeing this girl?"

I blushed, but Jen giggled. "He does know!" She grinned a wicked grin at me. "He's actually the one who asked me if I wanted to date her. He's got this thing with girl on girl!"

The Fat Lady started whaling on about the lax morals of youths today. I had to shout "Dumbledore" in order for her to hear. When she did, though the portrait swung open and we made our way in. It was slightly awkward as Jen still had her arm around me, but we managed. I was becoming very good at navigating with someone hanging on me, thanks to Fred.

Inside we was James and he was laughing it up with Axel Sharkes, his fellow seventh year and the only boy in the world that could make Vanessa speechless. Jen's grip tightened considerably when she saw him. We just walked by and made our way up to our dorm room.

Jen went straight to the game of Exploding Snap the other three were playing. "You playing, Cam?" Emily smiled at me.

I smiled back and shook my head. As good as Jen was at Exploding Snap, I was just as bad. I liked my eye brows where they were, thank you very much!

I sat back and watched them play. My gaze fell on Jen's laughing face. She had a huge heart, but she refused to share it for fear of someone treating it badly. If she didn't get over that fear then she was going to end up miserable for a very long time.

I made a decision right then. Jen, I thought, you're going to hate me for this, but I'm going to make things right with Al and get him over his shyness with me. You are going on a date with James Potter before Christmas. Because I love you and it's in your best interest.

I laughed out loud as Annily started cursing up a storm after her eye brows got burnt off.

See? I told you.

oooOoooOoooOooo

Al and Cam's relationship will be picking up in chapter 8. Right now Camry's main focus is on Jen's well being and not on Al or his feelings. That's going to change–somewhat–in chapter 8.

The longest chapter yet! Now that I have the chapters planned out they should be a bit longer, like this one. Though, I have to say, I'm quite proud of this chapter.

Anyway, thanks for reading and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check out the banner and tell me what you think! The link to my livejournal is in my profile.

_**Reviews Appreciated**_  
Flames Encouraged


	7. Ameliorate

Chapter Title: Ameliorate

Chapter Summary: Camry takes the first step in making things better with Al.

A/N: THIS CHAPTER KICKED MY ASS... TWICE!! It was just so very hard to write. I wanted it to be as good as chapter six, cause I loved how chapter six turned out.

I'm thinking of starting another fic. I've found that it's easier for me to write when I can go on to something else for a bit when I'm stuck. I've posted what will be the first chapter in my livejournal. If anyone would like to check it out and tell me if they're interested I'd really appreciate it. It's a major AU about Ginny based mainly during Goblet of Fire. The link is in my profile.

**I'd like to thank **_**raemevlin**_**, **_**rosie**_**, and **_**caity.cullen**_** for taking the time out to review!**

Sorry for the wait. Updates aren't going to be coming quickly at all. On top of my forty hour work week, I'm trying my best to spend most of my time with my friends. I'm moving at the end of August to go to University and I won't be seeing most of them again until Christmas time. That doesn't leave much time for writing. I'm sorry about that. I'll update when I can though. Patience is a requirement when reading my stories. Updates are sporadic. I do believe I said that in the author's note in the very first chapter.

oooOoooOoooOooo

I waited in the common room for the longest time. I'd woken up extra early to make sure that I didn't miss Al when he came down for breakfast. He was going to talk to me whether he wanted to or not, and there was no way he was going to escape this time. I'd corner him if I had to.

He had to have known I was waiting for him because breakfast was almost over and he still hadn't come down. I was beginning to lose my patience when a third year girl ran in and up the stairs because she forgot an assignment on her bed. I knew that, at that point, any sane person would be rushing to class. I wasn't worried about my own class, I had Divination, but Al had Ancient Runes and I knew he would hate to walk in late.

I looked up when I heard a noise at the stairs. It wasn't Al, just Don. Oh, wait! It was Don!

I stood up "Don!"

He jumped a little and ducked his head when he saw me. I walked over and met him at the bottom of the stairs. "Hey Camry, why aren't you on your way to class?"

"I'm waiting to talk to Al. He still up there?"

Don nodded. "He's waiting for you to leave. Cam, he really doesn't want to be around you."

That stung. "Why not?"

The look Don gave me right then made me feel very dumb. "Are you serious? You were leading him on and then you shot him down!"

"What?" I scoffed. "That is _not_ true! I never once treated him any different than I treat you or any other guy!"

"Maybe not, but you did start going out of your way to talk to him. Why, after five years, would you do that?" Don glared at me. Did he really not know about the bet? Surely Al had mentioned it?

I shook my head. "You know what? I don't have to explain myself to you."

I shoved my way past Don and marched up the stairs to the Boys' Dorms. I started down the hall, looking for the door with the six on it. Al was going to talk to me, even if I had to lock him in the room with me.

"Camry, just stop it okay?" I guess Don followed me. "The guy's been in love with you since he was eleven! Be the person I know you are and do the right thing. Give him the space he needs to get over this."

I looked at my feet, then up at Don. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"Why not?"

I scoffed. "Because I can't! Look, I already said that I don't need to explain myself to you so stop asking me to. I'm not going to just break down and give you all the details of my thought process. Back off."

"No." Don crossed his arms over his chest. "Al's my best friend, Camry. I'm not going to just stand by and let you hurt him."

"Like you care if your friends get hurt. Seriously, Rebecca Starling ring any bells?" I had to physically restrain myself from slapping my hand over my mouth. In fourth year Don stole Ashton's girlfriend. I couldn't believe I brought that up. I never planned to, I felt sick at the thought of bringing it up. That incident almost destroyed their friendship.

Don took a step towards me and I honestly thought he was going to hit me. He didn't. He stepped past me and punched the wall so hard that I could have sworn I heard the sound of bones breaking. I took a step away from him. Don had a horrible temper. He'd gotten into serious fights before, both magical and muggle, where he inflicted some serious damage to his opponents.

He turned back around to look at me. I still half thought he was going to hurt me. I guess I looked like I still half thought that because he squeezed his eyes shut and took several deep breaths. "Don't drag me or Ashton into this Camry. This is about you and Al. You're going to leave him alone."

"I'm sorry about that, but I'm not leaving him alone."

"Then at least tell me why the hell you insist on breaking his heart?" Don still looked on the verge of violence.

I looked at the wall behind him. I'd almost expected to see an indent in it. There wasn't, it was just as pristine as before. "I've got my reasons." And I had no intention of breaking Al's heart. I didn't say that though; Don was already stopping himself from breaking my nose. I wasn't going to push him over the edge by disagreeing with him any more than I already had.

Don shook his head. "Whatever. I'm going to class."

I watched Don storm away and felt the telltale feeling of guilt in the pit of my stomach. My mouth really did run away with me sometimes, didn't it? I took a deep breath and pulled my hair out of its bun and immediately pulled it into a high ponytail. Time to face Al. I continued down the hall and saw that the Sixth Year Boys' Dorm was in the same place as the Sixth Year Girls' Dorm. Made sense, I supposed.

I knocked before I went in. I didn't want to walk in on him naked or anything. That would just make what was already promising to be an awkward conversation even more awkward. No one needed that. When I didn't hear a response I assumed that he was dressed. I knew that when someone knocked on my door when I was naked I made sure to shout out to tell the person to _not_ come in.

I walked into the room and didn't see Al. I didn't see anyone. I was thoroughly confused. That is, until I walked deeper into the room and found Al on his hands and knees hiding behind a bed. That was cute. I tried not to giggle, but I couldn't stop myself. It was just too cute, anyone would have giggled.

He turned his head upwards to glare at me, his face an unflattering shade of deep red. "What?" He snapped at me, "I'm looking for my other shoe!"

"Oh." I didn't mention that he was wearing both his shoes. I just took a few steps back so I couldn't see him and he could pretend to be putting on his shoe.

"What do you want?" Al asked as he sat on the bed. I assumed it was his bed. He was pretending to be tying his shoes. I knew they were already tied!

"I wanted to know if you were finished the Charms assignment?"

Al snorted, rather rudely, and stood up. "It's due today isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're done." I reached back and pulled my hair out of its ponytail again. I sighed and pulled it back into its original style for the day–a bun.

I turned back to Al and he was staring at me.

"So you are done, then?" I shifted, more than a little uncomfortable.

His stare turned back into its cold glare and then he practically snarled at me. "Yeah, I'm done. Now I'm going to go to class."

He walked past me to the door, but paused just before going through it. "You _were_ finished, right?"

No, I wanted to scream. I was _not_ finished. I wanted to know why you're being such a, such a, such a bloody _girl_ about this! I didn't though. No, instead I said "Yeah. I need to get to class too."

"Whatever"

I glared at his retreating back. Pollock. I then marched through the halls of Hogwarts, intent on making a very disruptive entrance to Divination.

Just as I was starting to lose steam, I turned a corner and plowed right into James. _Great_, I sighed, _just what I need_!

"Camry!" James grinned at me, rubbing his chest where my head had collided into him. I wanted to rub my head too, but I refrained because I decided it would be more satisfying to glare instead. "Just the girl I was looking for!"

Glaring was definitely more satisfying.

"Not Jen? I'm shocked."

"Well, it's about Jen. Where are you headed?"

I rolled my eyes. I so did not want an escort. "Divination." What? Why did I tell him that? I would have smacked myself if it wouldn't have hurt.

"I'll walk you then!"

"Great!" I pursed my lips and just started on my way towards my classroom. Which was really out of the way. "Don't you have class?"

James shrugged and fell into step beside me. "Probably."

I shook my head at him. He was even more of a moron than his brother!

At first we walked in silence and I was thankful, but my luck was not good enough for that to last. "So," James started, "you and Al are in a fight."

Does James think of anything else? At all? Ever? "So it would seem."

"What about?"

"None of your business."

"Well, have you apologized yet?"

"I have nothing to apologize for."

"Apologize anyway."

I stopped to punch James in the stomach. He let out a very satisfying oomph. I held back a smirk. Best not to let him know how much I enjoyed that.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" James hollered at me. I was glad that everyone was in class or I would have been embarrassed.

"You! And Don! And Albus! And–and–and everyone else!" I hollered right back at him. Something I wouldn't have done if classes weren't in session. "I mean, honestly! I didn't do anything! At all! And you want me to bloody apologize? What for? I asked one, simple, bloody question and all I've gotten from it is grief! What do you people want from me? You are all asking me to act like I'm in love with him or something!"

I pointed at James. "You are his brother! Don't you care about his feelings at all? How would you feel if Jen pretended to be in love with you? Huh? Why would you ask me to do that to Al? You're despicable! All this for one date with Jen? You're willing to sacrifice your own brother's heart for _one bloody date_ with Jen? Is that it?

"Well I'm sorry then! Because I am _not _willing to sacrifice Al's heart for your's! It's not going to happen so back the hell off!"

James stared at me slack-jawed as I took some deep breaths. I had not planned on doing that. I felt better, yes, but it was more than a little uncalled for. James had never asked me to pretend to be in love with Al. It was unfair of me to accuse him of it.

Although, technically, it really _was_ what he wanted me to do. Even if he never actually asked me to do it. The more I thought about it, the more my outburst was completely called for! I should have called him a calloused moron while I was at it! It was my own self-control that saved James from the lashing he really deserved!

"What is this?"

I jumped and turned around so quickly that I experienced a little bit of nausea. I had thought that a professor had caught us, but I was wrong. The Fat Lady, it seemed, was visiting portraits again. "Nothing." I sighed, determined to make a dramatic exit.

"Is he harassing you again?" The Fat Lady looked at me. I bit back a smug grin.

"Yes, he is! He just keeps coming at me begging for sex! He won't leave me alone, even though both Fred and myself have told him to several times."

I turned around and left, listening to James getting told off by the portrait the whole way down the hall. I knew I should feel sorry for it, but I really didn't. Maybe he didn't mean to be putting Al and I through what he was, but that didn't change the fact that James _was_ putting us through it. He deserved some retribution.

It wasn't until I turned the corner that I realized that I'd gone the wrong way for class. Screw it, I thought, there was no was in hell I was going back down that hall again. Not after the way I'd just told off James. No way, nuh uh, not going to happen.

Instead I decided to go for a walk through the school, avoiding class areas of course. I felt slightly exhilarated. I'd never cut class before. It was actually kind of fun. At first, anyway. After a bit I started to think about Al. I'd really hurt his feelings and I was going to have to try really hard to fix things. I curled my nose as I thought about how I wouldn't have to put so much effort into this if Jen would just go out with James. Sure the guy was a git, but at least he was a git who was head over heals for her!

Which brought on thoughts of when I had a boy who was head over heals for me. Malcolm Jannings. My first and only ever boyfriend. Once upon a time I had been that boy's bread and butter, and he had been mine. It was love at first, awkward, kiss under the mistletoe in fourth year. It had been nearly six months since he'd broken it off at that point. The month of the break up was known as Black April between the girls and myself.

Which brought on thoughts of the girls. Well, Jenessa. Which brought back my thoughts on James, which brought me full circle back to Al.

I conceded, at that point, that I was out of my league. I couldn't talk to Jen about it, she'd be heartbroken. Vanessa wouldn't really be much help. Neither would Annily or Emily for that matter. Damn, why couldn't I have at least one slutty friend? Was that too much to ask for?

There was really only one person I could ask, but–no, I couldn't–not her! But the more I thought the more I realised Mum was really the only girl I knew with real relationship experience. She had been married almost nineteen years at that point. She had to know _something_ about relationships, didn't she? I stopped where I was and looked around to see that no one was around.

When I was sure that I was alone I did what anyone would have done in my position. I jumped up and down, pumping my fists, and I whined very loudly. Temper tantrums might not be productive, but they made me feel better. So, really, they were productive, just not in the sense that they got me anywhere closer to where I wanted to be...

I didn't waste any time in swallowing my pride and writing a letter home, detailing my issue with Al. If I had waited, even a little while, I would have talked myself out of it. I literally sat down right where I was and whipped a piece of parchment out of my bag. I applied the same logic when I ran down to the owlery to send the letter before I went to Potions.

I was quiet throughout most of Potions, I did even worse in Defence Against the Dark Arts than usual, and I didn't eat lunch. I spent all of that time dreading going to Charms. I'd have to sit in a room with Albus Potter for seventy-five minutes with no reprieve or escape. Yes, I knew that I should be happy about it. He wouldn't be able to run away and I could make him talk to me.

What I couldn't do, however, was make him talk _nicely_ to me. I wasn't eager to be told off. I was already having a bad day because of Al Potter. I did _not_ need him to make it worse for me.

And so I slowly trudged into Charms class and saw Al sitting in his normal seat. Right next to my normal seat. Damn, I thought, so much for my seat. I started to head somewhere else before a little defiant voice popped into the forefront of my mind.

_Why are you going to another seat? He's the one that's angry with you, isn't he?_

Yes, but I doubted he would move even if I sat beside him. All of the Potters were notoriously stubborn.

_You sit in the same seat in every class. Off to the right just a bit so you're not in the front or back. He knows that. He's just being a git by sitting there!_

He really was, I decided. I sent an evil look at him and marched right over to my normal seat and sat down as loudly as I could. Ha! Ignore me now git!

I looked over and saw Al looking at me. I sent him another evil look, just to be sure he knew I was sending him evil looks, and then took my wand and books out and placed them on the desk. I knew I was being silly, and that acting like that was not conducive to my goals, but I couldn't help it. Maybe–just _maybe_–I was as stubborn as the Potter family was known to be.

And so I decided to ignore him for that class alone. Just to teach him his lesson, which he wasn't going to learn because he was ignoring me as well. He was better at it too.

After Flitwick was well into his lecture something happened that completely shocked me. Al spoke to me. Although, it comforted me to know that I called it when I said he wouldn't talk nicely.

"What makes you think I like you? You're not _that_ pretty you know."

Ouch much? I turned slightly so that I was looking at him, but it looked to others as if I were writing notes. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact that his attention was on me and not Flitwick. I supposed it didn't matter, as the tiny man was nearly blind from age, but I liked to show a small amount of respect for the man. It was only fair to at least pretend like I feared getting caught.

"Who said I think you like me?"

It's always better to play dumb, at first anyway.

"Why else would you have asked if we were friends? You were making sure I didn't think you like me. Why would you do that if you don't think I like you?" Al was making that face that people make when they think the person they're talking to is really stupid.

I had to think quickly, and yet stop myself from going into Evil Camry mode. Not easy. "I wanted to make sure that we were, in fact, friends! I mean, we never talked before this year! I wasn't sure if you were thinking like me. I wanted to make sure you thought of me as a friend, because that's how I think of you."

Wow! That sounded believable.Success!

Except I couldn't enjoy my success because I saw the hurt that flashed across Al's face. That sucked. But it was better than not getting the 'just friends' thing across and having him confess his feelings to me and get shot down.

He looked back to Flitwick. No, I thought, this has to be done now. I needed to make things right. I needed to know that he felt they were right.

"I'm sorry, you must have been really offended. I mean, like you said, I'm not that pretty and I must have come off sounding really conceited."

Al looked down and the desk and ran his hand through his hair. Then he turned back to me and guilt was plastered all over his face.

"No, I'm sorry. I overreacted. I should have just asked instead of assuming."

I smiled. "We're both sorry then."

Al didn't smile back, and slowly turned the colour of an extremely ripe apple. "I'm sorry about saying you're not pretty too. That's not true. You're beautiful."

The air almost completely left my body. I hadn't been called beautiful, in any amount of seriousness, by a boy since Malcolm. I started to say something but Al interrupted me. "We should be paying attention."

Al then went back to ignoring me. I guessed that, while all was forgiven, all was not forgotten. I nodded. I could give him some time. I was in no hurry.

oooOoooOoooOooo

Just so we're clear! I did not forget about the letter home in the coming chapters! It just doesn't come up again until later!

And that is chapter seven. In six pages I am only satisfied with the scene where Camry was with James and the very last paragraph.

Oh, but, YAY!! Some actual Albus/Camry shippyness! squee

PS: Can I just say that I _love love love_ the new Reader Traffic feature? I never knew just how many people were reading my stories! AMAZING ego boost!

_**Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged**_


	8. Assignation

Chapter Title: Assignation

Chapter Summary: Camry has been replaced, and then discovers that it's really not the end of the world.

AN: This is a very long chapter guys. Well, it's long compared to the earlier chapters. There's nearly six thousand words, and over ten pages. I hope you like it.

oooOoooOoooOooo

"Vee, you seriously need to calm down."

"How am I supposed to calm down? Axel sat with me for most of dinner! Do you think this means he likes me? Or was he just being friendly? Cause he is, you know, friendly I mean."

I didn't want to tell her that Axel sat with her because James and Fred were here too. Vanessa was the smartest one among us, but her common sense flew right out the window when Axel Sharkes entered the room. Instead I said something else.

"Getting all excited wouldn't be very conducive to your plans, now would it?" It was something Vanessa said a lot. Getting angry wouldn't be conducive to her plans. Crying wouldn't be conducive to her plans. If it wasn't conducive, then she couldn't do it. I thought it was silly, but it worked for her so I always kept my mouth shut; it was part of what made her the strongest person I knew.

Vanessa frowned at me, and looked over to where Axel, James, and Fred were leaving. Jenessa had left with Annily and there was no longer a point for them to be sitting with us.

"You know, maybe you should just ask him out?"

We both looked over at Emily. I nodded, but Vanessa looked horrified at the suggestion. "No way!" she practically screamed. "I can_not_ do that!"

"Why not?" I asked.

Vanessa sputtered for a minute. "Because! I'm an old fashioned girl, I think boys should be the ones to ask girls out."

Emily choked on the apple juice she was in the middle of sipping. "You're joking, right? Right?"

"No, why?"

"Because! If dating were left up to men, then the human race would have ceased to exist hundreds of years ago!" Emily was a firm believer in making the first move. In her mind the guy either likes you back or he doesn't. She felt it was better to know, so if he didn't then she could move on and find a guy that did feel the same way about her.

I wasn't sure who's side I was on. Who should make the first move? The guy or the girl? I'd never had that problem. Malcolm and I were sort of just thrown at each other. There had never been another guy in my life for me _to_ make a move on. Would I even want to?

"Hundreds of years ago men chose husbands for their daughters. Women had no say in the matter at all." Vanessa rolled her eyes.

"So you'd rather have absolutely no choice? Why? Because it's easier?"

"No! Absolutely not! There is no way I'd let my father choose for me. I was just pointing out that your argument was flawed."

"Then you missed the point of it! What's the point in equal rights, and feminism if women are just sitting on their arses the whole day waiting for a man to give them a wink or a nod?" Emily accidentally knocked her juice over. "Shite! Sorry."

"No damage done." I quickly righted the glass and Vanessa waved her wand at the spill and made it disappear. She turned back to Emily. "This has nothing to do with equal rights or feminism. This has to do with romance. The world has lost nearly all of its romance! There's no more courting, no wooing, there's nothing! What ever happened to a guy standing outside a woman's home and serenading her, or confessing his love? Or even just sending her flowers for no reason other than that they made him think of her?"

"Who needs that? That was never anything other than a man's way to guilt the woman into accepting his affections. Tricking her into loving him because of his grand gestures instead of because of the kind of man he is!"

They do this a lot. Emily and Vanessa, I mean. They realized in first year that they agreed on absolutely nothing. They decided that, instead of disliking each other, they would use their disagreements as an opportunity to convert the other. They never did. They always left each debate with the same opinions, but I always thought that they really enjoyed these discussions they had.

"It's not about disguising the kind of man he is! It's about showing what kind of man he is! Every grand gesture he comes up with is indicative to who he is, to how he thinks or feels. There is no better way to discover the true nature of a man than to listen to the rhymes he thought up in the name of love for you. Every grand gesture is a man's way of telling a woman that she matters! That she's damned important to him!"

I got up at that point. They enjoyed their debates. I didn't. They barely acknowledged that I was leaving, but I didn't mind so much. Al told me earlier that day to go over the Charms lesson for tutoring tomorrow. I wasn't looking forward to it, but Vanessa and Emily's debate gave me the kick I needed to do it, as there was nothing else left to do.

That's not to say I didn't take my time. I didn't head straight for the Gryffindor common room, I took several detours and purposefully took more than one wrong turn. Exploring the castle was something that, I always thought, everyone had in common. No matter what house a person was from, everyone loved wandering these corridors. Hogwarts wasn't just a magical school with magical enchantments. Hogwarts _was_ magic. It was beautiful.

I was in a blissfully content mood, wandering aimlessly, Charms work completely forgotten, lost in philosophical thought. Who wouldn't have been in the kind of mood I was in? Without even looking in my mirror, I knew I had the most content smile on my face anyone had ever seen.

So it's not hard to imagine how much I did not appreciate what happened next.

I was getting ready to turn one last corner when I heard something very unpleasant. When I say unpleasant, I mean that I did not want to hear it. Whoever the girl making the sound was most certainly didn't find whatever was causing her to make the sound unpleasant at all. I heard a whimper-like moan and I had no doubt about what was going on around the very corner I had been prepared to turn just a moment earlier.

Someone was snogging.

A decent human being would have turned around. I knew that. I told myself that. I then shrugged and peaked around the corner. What I found on the other side of that corner stopped my heart.

It was certainly not how I'd imagined discovering that Malcolm had a new girlfriend at all. I had thought about it a few times. I'd imagined that he'd come up to me and pull me aside and tell me so that I wouldn't be blind sided by it.

I have to say that finding him in a passionate, going on vulgar, embrace with another girl in a public corridor was definitely the exact opposite of how I thought I'd find out. For some reason I couldn't look away. All I could do was stare at my very first love in an embrace with a girl that wasn't me.

Was how I was feeling the way Al felt when he'd seen me with Malcolm the year and a half we'd been together?

_Where_ did _that_ come from? I shook my head. I didn't care to think about where that thought had come from. I just wanted to know who the girl was that obviously had something I didn't. I leaned farther around the corner to get a better view. She had red hair. Who did I know that had red hair? I leaned even more. Ravenclaw.

I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling. What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I forcing myself to watch this? Why couldn't I leave? The sight of Malcolm's back as he snogged the hell out of that red haired Ravenclaw was making me sick. Why wouldn't my feet work?

Because I needed to know. Who was this girl that had replaced me as Malcolm's everything? Who was this red haired Ravenclaw that he preferred to me? Why was she so special?

At this point I was no longer leaning around the corner. I was standing upright and if they turned to look, they would look directly at me. Me, the creeper that stares at snoggers.

Malcolm's hand disappeared. Ew. I took a tentative step forwards and then I saw her face, or at least part of it. It didn't take much to recognize her. Sure, she wasn't in the papers as much as Al or James or Lily, but she was in it enough for me to know exactly who she was without ever actually talking to her. Lucy Weasley. Lucy Weasley had replaced me as Malcolm's better half. I felt sick as I realized that what I was feeling had more to do with being replaced than it did with my feelings for Malcolm.

I ran away.

I ran all the way up to the common room. I wanted to run up the stairs to my bed, but I barely managed to get to the couch before I collapsed from exhaustion.

Malcolm had a girlfriend. He had apparently had one for a while from the look of it. How long I wondered? Is that why he broke up with me? I shook my head. No, that wasn't why. Malcolm was a good guy. A really good guy. He would never have even considered hurting me, not like that.

We'd gotten together at Christmas time fourth year. We were at a party together. There were three parties at the Potter household that night. One for the children, one for the teenagers, and one for the adults. Needless to say, there was mistletoe at the teen party and I'd gotten caught underneath it with Malcolm. It was extremely public and awkward, but it was enough.

It was both of our first kisses and we stuck together the rest of the night. After that we were just together. There was really none of the romance that Vanessa loved so much, or the feminist 'first move' that Emily believed in so firmly. It was just him and me and a beautiful first romance.

I'd gotten a few odd looks with Malcolm. He was never the best looking boy. He had thick black hair, a deep scowl, and a crooked nose, and until that night under the mistletoe I agreed with Emily and Annily that he was rather unfortunate. But when he pulled away from our awkward kiss and I looked into his beautiful brown eyes–well–I changed my mind.

I decided right then that I could spend the rest of my life staring into those pale brown pools. His eyes were mesmerizing.

I hadn't seen it coming when he broke up with me, but I know I should have. It was April in fifth year. After Yule break ended, we'd both become stressed over OWLs and we hardly ever saw each other. When we did it just wasn't the same. I guess we were drifting, or falling out of love, or whatever it's called. That didn't make it hurt any less. Afterwards I was left with those burning questions.

Why was this happening? Why wasn't he willing to work through it? Was I not good enough? What was so wrong with me that he wasn't even willing to try anymore? It wasn't until summer time that I came to terms with it, really.

I didn't know why I was so upset with Malcolm moving on. I had, hadn't I? Not romantically, no, but emotionally I had. I supposed it was human nature to not want something but still not want someone else to have it either.

I'd best learn to deal with it, I supposed. If that moment I interrupted between Malcolm and Lucy was any indication then they were going to be together for a while.

I reached up and pulled my hair out of its bun. I was in the process of putting it into a ponytail when I saw that I was alone in a very dark common room. Huh? I looked to the clock over the fireplace. I hadn't realized so much time had passed. Why hadn't Vanessa or Emily tried to talk to me? Why had everyone just left me sitting on the couch for that long? Hadn't someone been even a little bit worried?

I shook my head. Vanessa and Emily knew when to leave me alone and it wasn't like it was someone's job to stop me from spacing out. I was just freaking out because I couldn't leave the common room and I hadn't walked around enough to get rid of my jitters over being locked up for the night.

I felt cold at the thought. I hadn't gone a night without walking around the school before coming back here since second year. I could feel myself shaking a bit. The walls felt like they were closing in on me.

Okay, so, yes, maybe, I might be a little bit claustrophobic. Just a little though. I never minded small spaces. What I minded was spaces that I couldn't get out of.

Deep breaths. I just needed a few deep breaths and everything would be just fine. I just needed to stop with the short and ragged breaths and start on some deep and slow breaths. Yeah, that's all I needed.

I heard a noise to my right and turned to see Albus walking towards the portrait hole. What? Curfew was long gone, what was he doing?

"Sweet Merlin, you're sneaking out aren't you?" I slapped a hand over my mouth. Things weren't good enough between Albus and myself for me to just start shouting at him from across rooms.

He jumped and turned to look at me. His face immediately turned red and he looked away. "Uh, no, of course not. Why would I be sneaking out? Merlin Camry, you know what they say about assuming things."

I frowned. Back to the rambling then, are we? "So you're not sneaking out?"

Al's face turned an even deeper shade of red. "What if I am?"

"Can I come?" I jumped off the couch and rushed over to him. I needed out. Space. I needed space, deep breathing be damned. Since when did deep breathing work for anything anyway?

Al looked at his feet and ran his hand through his hair. "I, uh, I don't think that–"

"Please Al? Can I please come with you?" I reached out and grabbed his hands. "Please?"

Al pulled his hands out of mine and coughed. "Look Camry, why don't you just go upstairs and–"

"No!" I shouted. I felt a bit bad when Al jumped. "I need to get out of here, but there's no way I'm wandering the corridors alone this late at night!"

Al looked at me, really _looked_, and I guess he saw that I wasn't fooling around with him because he nodded. He pushed open the portrait hole and waited for me to step out. I did, and I felt as though a heavy weight was lifted off of me the second the portrait hole closed to reveal the Fat Lady.

"Boys again, then? You certainly do get around, don't you?"

I smiled at the Fat Lady, too relieved to be out of the common room to care about teasing her. I just started walking, and hoped that Al was following. He was.

We walked in silence a for a bit. I was waiting for Al to talk, I didn't want to talk if I was going to make him uncomfortable. It didn't take too long though.

"Did you have a fight with Vanessa or something?"

"What? No!" I looked at him. Al raised his hands as a sign of surrender. "Why would you ask that?"

Al shrugged. "It's just you needed out of the common room and I know that if you fought with someone other than Vanessa then she'd be with you, so I just thought..."

I frowned a bit. "No, I didn't fight with anyone, I just needed out of the common room. I was distracted and didn't get a chance to get the jitters out."

"Huh? Get the what out?" Al furrowed his eyes brows and frowned. He looked absolutely adorable.

"I have this theory, see, that the common rooms after hours–they're like prison–they lock us in and we can't get out without reprimand! I can't handle it! I have to walk the school every night before I go there or I break down. I just can't function, you know?"

"Oh." Al looked like he didn't know what to say. He probably didn't. I just shrugged.

"So why are you out after hours?"

Al rubbed the back of his neck while we descended the stairs. "I'm just a bit hungry is all."

"There's no food in the Great Hall right now."

"No, but there is in the kitchens."

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "We have _kitchens_?" How could we have kitchens and only Al know about them? All those hungry nights? All those missed lunches? All those days of sleeping in and going through classes completely starved? I didn't have to go through any of that? Ever?

"Yes. We do." Al nodded and looked at me as if I was in the process of growing a third arm.

"Why did I not know this?"

"Where did you think all of your food was coming from?"

I glared at Al for a moment. "Magic!"

Al laughed at me. "You thought it was just magically created out of nothing."

Well, don't try to make me feel like an idiot or anything. "No, obviously not–"

"So you–" Al stopped abruptly and looked down a corridor.

"So I–"

"Shh!" Al waved at me. "I think I hear someone."

"What are you talking about? There's no one around."

Then I heard it too. A distant voice down the very corridor that Al was looking in. "Argh! Damned tapestries, always getting in my way! Don't know why Minerva doesn't just burn the damned things!"

I froze. Jenkins was heading directly towards us. Jenkins was the old, senile, sadistic caretaker that had replaced a man named Filch. My father told me once that Filch was always trying to get students hung upside down by their toes, or something like that.

"What do we do?" I whispered as loudly as I dared to.

"Run!"

Al grabbed my hand and together we dashed through the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. I'd never run so hard in my life. I knew we had to be making an unbelievable amount of noise, but I couldn't hear anything over the blood pumping violently through my ears.

After three stair wells, five doors, and countless corridors we came to a slow stop. When we finally lost all of our momentum I fell to my knees and gasped for air. I really needed to get into shape. With all the running it was turning out that I had to do, I was going to hurt myself if I didn't.

"You okay?" Al asked, breathing heavily.

"Yeah!" I managed to gasp out between haggard breaths.

I stood up and leaned against the wall. That was close. We were almost caught. My eyes suddenly shot open. We almost got caught. If we'd gotten caught I would have gotten detention. I narrowly escaped detention.

"We're out after hours!" I had to force myself to speak quietly.

"You're just figuring that out now?"

I glared at Al for a moment. "What if we get caught? With all that noise we just made? Oh man, I can't breathe! I can't have detention, okay? I just can't!"

Al ran his hand through his hair. "Look, Camry, it's fine, okay? We're not getting caught."

I shook my head. "We will. We're going to get caught and then I'll get detention, and then I'll never get a decent job because employers will look at my horrible marks and then see that I'm a delinquent on top of that and I'll die hungry in a ditch!"

I put my hand on my chest, trying to force myself to breathe. Al put his hand on my shoulder, but then seemed to think twice about it and removed it.

"Look, you're not going to die hungry in a ditch, okay? We're not going to get caught."

I nodded. "Yes we are! We almost just did!"

"No, we didn't. We got away in time, and we're not going to get caught."

"What if he's not talking so loud next time? After the racket we made he'll be actively _looking _for us Al!"

"He's not going to find us!"

"What makes you so damned sure? Huh?" I was forcing myself to stay quiet, but I really want to beat him senseless and shout loudly at him.

"Because!" Al reached into his robes and pulled out a cloak. "I have this!"

"A cloak? So what, are we going to throw it over his head so he can't see us and run away?" I rolled my eyes.

Al just glared at me for a moment and then stuck his arm into the cloak. I choked on my shock. His arm disappeared.

"Bloody hell Al! You have an invisibility cloak?" I reached out to grab it, but Al quickly stuffed it back into his robes. I tried really hard not to be disappointed.

"Yes I do, now will you calm down?"

I looked at Al, he didn't seem annoyed so much as flustered. I nodded. "Yeah. I'll calm down." After all, I couldn't get caught if I was invisible now could I? It was then that my stomach let out a ravenous guttural noise.

Al laughed a bit before pointing down a corridor. "It seems I'm not the only one that's hungry?"

I felt my cheeks heat up and just walked down the way Al was pointing. It wasn't my fault! I'd run Hogwarts twice that day, who wouldn't have been hungry? No one, that's who!

I turned to Al. "Where'd you get that cloak from?"

"My dad, actually. He got it from his." Al shrugged at me.

"Why didn't he give it to James? Wouldn't it make sense to give it to the eldest child?"

Al smiled a bit. "James got something else."

"Consider my curiosity peaked?" I looked at Al, hoping that I had secret mind powers that I hadn't been aware of and was quietly convincing him to tell me what James got.

Al's small smile turned into a grin. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it'll be peaked for a while then."

I pouted at him as he stopped in front of a painting. "Please tell me? I'll be your best friend!"

"Tickle the pear."

Excuse me? "Excuse me?"

Al pointed at the painting. "Tickle the pear."

"You're trying to get me to do something stupid just so you can tell people, aren't you?"

Al laughed at me and then shook his head. He reached forward and tickled the pear. I watched, fascinated, as it giggled and morphed into a door knob. Al turned it and the painting swung open to reveal a massive kitchen.

Al stepped through and held the door open for me. I stepped through and then stumbled a bit, but managed to catch myself.

"Master Potter!"

I looked down and saw the ugliest creature I'd ever seen in my life. What the hell was that thing? I took a step behind Al.

"Dorburn!" Al smiled and kneeled down so that he was level with the hideous thing. "How are you today?"

"Dorburn was so lucky! Got to help with the pudding!"

"So that's why it tasted so well!"

The tiny thing–apparently named Dorburn–looked about ready to wet itself from Al's praise.

"What does Master Potter and his friend want from the kitchens?"

Al ruffled the thing's head, where hair would have been on the person. "I'm sure we'll both just love whatever you bring us."

Dorburn emitted a high-pitched, eye watering sound and ran off deeper into the kitchen. Before Al could even stand up, I knelt down next to him. "What the hell is that thing?" I made sure to ask as quietly as possible, so as not to offend whatever it was.

Al stood up and looked at me, yet again, as though I was in the process of growing a third arm. "Dorburn is a house elf."

"House elf?" I peered deeper into the kitchen as saw that there were quite a few of them at work.

"You've never seen one before?" Al asked as he sat down.

I sat down across from him and shook my head. "Mum refuses to have one. Something about loyalty and gratitude to some girl she went to school with."

"Yeah?"

"I never really thought much on it. I can clean my own room and cook my own food, so it's not like my life was lacking without one, you know?"

Al nodded. "We have one, but he's so old that he can't do much cleaning anymore. He's mostly just there these days. Kind of cranky, but my Dad loves him."

"What's his name?"

"Kreacher."

I wrinkled my nose. "What a lovely name."

Al shrugged. "We didn't name him."

"I guess not."

We lapsed into an awkward silence after that. I tapped my fingers on the table, Al looked around the room. I was about to make a last ditch effort and bring up Charms, but I couldn't bring myself to go quite that far. Charms. Blah.

Thankfully, we were saved by Dorburn, the ugly–yet still, apparently quite the looker amongst house elves, if the other one in the corner was any indication–beast. He dropped chicken breasts marinated in orange sauce and spiced potatoes in front of us. It smelled delicious.

Al smiled at the tiny, slightly unclean smelling, creature. "Wow Dorburn! This looks amazing! Did you make it yourself?"

Dorburn's mouth twisted into a hideous little smile and he nodded so vigorously that his ears flopped. I was worried they'd end up in my potatoes for a minute there. "Dorburn prepared the potatoes and the sauce for's the chicken! It was Lintis that made the chicken."

"Well, I can just tell that I'm going to enjoy the potatoes the most!"

"Thank you Master Potter! Dorburn is unworthy of such praise."

Al patted Durburn's head and laughed. "You are most definitely worthy of this praise Dorburn!"

To this day I still swear that the ugly little House Elf started crying at that point. "Dorburn must return to work!"

And with a snap of the creature's fingers, it was gone. And we were once again left in an awkward silence, but this time at least we had food to occupy ourselves. It really was delicious, but I felt that the chicken was better than the potatoes. The orange sauce was a bit salty. I wondered for a moment it that wasn't from Dorburn crying into as he made it or something like that. The mental image that gave me made me cringe a bit and turn to the potatoes instead.

"So what's with that?" I asked, referring to Dorburn.

"What do you mean?" Al got this dimple in his forehead when he was confused, I noticed.

"Dorburn," I pointed to where the house elf had been previously, "What's with the love affair?"

Al laughed, really laughed, and it made me smile a bit.

"My dad and aunt Hermione always told me to treat house elves with kindness and respect." He was still chuckling a bit. "When I came down here for the first time I met Dorburn and I treated him the way my parents taught me to, and I guess he just really liked being treated that way. He's gone out of his way to help me and do me favours ever since."

"Oh." I took another bite of chicken. "How'd you know about the kitchens anyway?"

Al grinned at me. "Family secret." Al then winked at me, and then seemed to realize what he did because he blushed scarlet soon after. I giggled at him. He was just too cute sometimes.

"Well, will I ever be allowed to know?" I leaned forward, fighting back laughter.

Al leaned forward as well, still red but seemingly more confident, and motioned for me to lean closer as well. I did. He took a deep breath before shaking his head. "No."

I scoffed and shoved him back into his seat. "Git!" I shook my head and we both laughed.

Al glanced at his watch. "We should head back now." I wasn't wearing a watch so I grabbed Al's wrist and pulled it over to see the time. I was shocked to see that it was two in the morning.

I nodded. "Yeah, we really should."

Al opened the door for me and we started on our way back to the Gryffindor common room. For whatever reason, I felt much more at ease.

"So tell me something about your parents."

I looked at Al. "Why?"

"Well, I told you a bit about mine–with the house elves and all–so now I want to hear something about yours."

"Oh." I thought for a minute about what to say. "Well, my mum is seriously divination crazy. She's always making predictions and things that she can make happen, like burnt dinners and such. I don't really talk to her much more than I have to, she's always telling me to be better at Divination class and making predictions about my love life and things like that."

"Not close then?"

I shook my head.

Al frowned a bit. "That sucks, I'm really close to both my parents. More so to my mum, but I'm fairly close to my dad too."

"Well yeah, but your parents are awesome. Your mum was a player for the Harpies! Your dad, well, I guess that's kind of obvious, isn't it?"

Al blushed and rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. "Yeah, but it's got nothing to do with their jobs. Who really cares about that stuff, you know? I guess it's just that I spent a lot of time with them growing up, mostly mum though. They always just encouraged me and my interests and things."

I smiled. "Yeah, my dad does that. He's a bit on the high and mighty side, but he's never judged me for anything. He's always telling mum to back off of the divination stuff around me, because he knows I hate it."

Al grinned at me in a way that made me slightly uncomfortable. He was looking at me like I'd just told him I was going to give him a puppy or something. I felt very awkward, but that didn't last long because that's when I heard Jenkins randomly ranting about the suits of armour.

Al heard it too because he stopped smiling. He grabbed my hand and we started to run the opposite way. Al turned the corner first, but then shoved himself backwards before I had the chance to turn. "What the bloody hell Al!" I snapped quietly. "Jenkins is coming this way!"

"So is Longbottom!" Al snapped.

I felt my eyes widen to twice their normal size. "What?" I could feel myself starting to panic, I was having trouble breathing.

Al looked around a bit, I didn't take much notice to what he was doing until he grabbed both my arms and shoved me into the wall. "What are you doing?"

"Don't make a sound!" Al gave me a pointed look before reaching into his robes and throwing his cloak on me.

I didn't know what to do, and I didn't understand why Al wasn't under the cloak with me. Was the boy stupid? Did he _want_ to get caught?

Only a moment or two later Professor Longbottom turned the corner at the same time as Jenkins. I could feel my heart pounding against my chest.

"What are you doing out here boy!" Jenkins demanded while Longbottom gave Al an appraising look.

Al looked at Jenkins, looking completely innocent, and cleared his throat. "Well, sir–"

"Enough! I don't need to hear any excuses!"

"Jenkins." Longbottom interrupted. "I think I can handle this."

"You wouldn't know how to handle something if it–"

"Jenkins! That's enough. Mr. Potter, you realize it's nearly two thirty in the morning, don't you?"

"Yes Professor, I really do."

Professor Longbottom crossed his arms over his chest while Jenkins tapped his foot impatiently. Al looked just as innocent as ever. What was he doing?

"Would you care to tell me what this reason is?"

I gulped. Did Al have a ready-to-use excuse? I doubted it.

"Well, sir, it was Lily, you see." Maybe he did?

"What about her? Is she alright?" Longbottom asked, immediately worried. Wow, Al really knew how to play our head of house.

"Yes, she is. Now, at least. See, she was having some boy troubles and she was really upset. I got this owl from her earlier and I rushed out to find her. I know I should have gotten permission first, but I was so worried that I completely forgot to." Al gave a wide smile, and shrugged. I felt my stomach flip at the site.

I suddenly felt butterflies in my stomach. I felt a little guilty as I realized that the only reason he had to do this was because I was using his cloak instead of him. He hadn't intended on me coming with him and he was risking detention to protect me from one.

I felt a bit warm at the thought. No one had ever done something like that for me before. Admittedly, no one had ever had to, but still. I couldn't believe I was looking at the same blushing boy from that day on the Hogwarts Express. I couldn't believe that Al had it in him to be so charismatic and charming. I'd never seen him act that way before.

"Well," Professor Longbottom sighed. "you broke the rules, but your actions are understandable. I suggest you hurry on up to the common room."

I could easily see why Longbottom had fallen for Al's excuse. Anyone would fall under Al's spell while he was behaving like that. All confident, sweet, and charming.

"Yes sir, that's where I w–"

"I can't believe you're falling for that!" I cringed as Jenkins could have ruined everything.

He didn't though, Longbottom just glared at him. "Enough with you!"

Jenkins shook his head and stormed off muttering about gullibility and despicable teenagers.

"Sorry about him Al." Longbottom grinned.

"No problem. You were right though, I should get going." Al shrugged.

"Yes you should. I'll be going now as well, I expect you to go straight to the common room."

"Yes sir." Al grinned and gave Longbottom a salute. Longbottom just laughed and shook his head as he left.

Al waited for him to turned the corner before he blushed and rushed over to me. He pulled the cloak off and all I could do was stare. Was that the Albus Potter everyone else got to see?

"Sorry." He whispered. "But we have to get back now."

I nodded, still unable to find my voice, and quickly followed him through the halls. After a bit, though, I found my voice.

"You know, Al," I said as quietly as I could without whispering. "That was pretty smooth."

Al laughed. "Neville's nothing. You should see me smooth talking everyone else."

"Get caught out after hours a lot, do we?" I bit back a giggle.

Al just grinned at me. I smiled back. We walked right by the place I'd seen Malcolm with Lucy, and I really didn't care. So what if he moved on?

I was starting to realize that it really wasn't the end of the world.

oooOoooOoooOooo

And voila! A finished chapter! Sorry for the wait, but I wanted this chapter to be perfect. This chapter is first turning point. There's going to be about 6-10 of them though, now that I have the whole story worked out.

_Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged_


	9. Histrionic

Chapter Title: Histrionic

Hi! Sorry this took so long guys! First I got distracted by schoolwork (I really hope I don't have to explain to anyone why that has to come before this story!!!) And then I lost the flashdrive that I keep all of my information for this story on and I still technically haven't found it. I did, however, find an old copy on my computer where I have my original chapter outlines. From those I have been able to remember and rework the story into what I wanted again and so I am now (obviously) writing again!

I would like to ask _**Rosie**_ to leave me an email address or to create an account in her next review because I would like to respond to your reviews but I can't without a way to contact you. I really don't want to say what I want to say in a public forum. Thank you.

oooOoooOoooOooo

I was in a good mood. My day had been going wonderfully, I had gone through Potions with Vanessa and Emily with a grin on my face, and now I was settling into my seat next to Annily in Herbology and I was just genuinely happy at that moment. My life was good. My friendships with the girls were all solid, with no quarrels to speak of, my friendship with Al was moving along nicely, James was making headway with Jen, and my mother hadn't harassed me about Divination in at least two weeks–not to mention it was Halloween!

"Did you do the questions?"

I looked over to see Annily digging quickly through her bag for a quill. "Let me guess? Something came up and you didn't have time to do your homework, right?"

Annily blushed as she pulled out her elusive quill. "Something like that. Did you do them?"

I glared at her for a moment before sighing and handing the questions for chapter seven over to her. She smiled and took them. "Thanks so much! I love you like no tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes at her. "I know."

"Where do you find the time to do all of your homework? I've never seen you pass anything in late."

Annily looked up at me when I didn't answer her right away. I was distracted by the beautiful fifth year Ravenclaw that was giving my ex boyfriend a very intimate hug at the entrance of the green house. Annily turned to see what I was looking at. She turned back to me with a frown.

"Cam? You okay?"

I turned away to look at her. I smiled. "You know what? I actually kind of am."

It turns out that I wasn't so wrong about what Malcolm would do. Just hours before Malcolm and Lucy went public with their relationship Malcolm came up to me and told me about them. Lucy had agreed to keep their relationship secret until he told me about it. It still hurt a little to know that Malcolm had moved on–and to someone so gorgeous, too–but I was okay with it.

Annily gave me a look that clearly stated she thought I was lying. I frowned at her. "I'm serious! I'm okay. Malcolm and I have been over for a while now. It's really not a big deal."

"You're sure?"

I gave one last glance at Malcolm, who was now entering the green house, and then looked at Annily. "I really am. I'll always love Malcolm, but I don't think I'll ever be in love with him again."

Annily smiled at me. "Good." She held up a cockroach cluster. "Have you ever tried these?"

If I wasn't used to her random topic changes, I would have been confused. "Can't say that I have. Why?"

"Well, I asked my dad to buy some for me so that I could try them. They're not that bad, you know?"

I snorted, quite unlady like, at the thought. "I'm sure."

Annily pursed her lips at me. "Try one."

"No thanks, I'm good." I waved away the cluster she was holding out for me.

"Try it!"

"No!"

"Just try it would you? What's it going to hurt?"

"I don't want t–"

It was at that moment that Annily Jordan shoved a cockroach cluster into my mouth and then clamped her hand over it so that I could not spit it out.

"Just eat it, and I'll never ask you to try one again!"

I gagged as I chewed the disgustingly flavoured candy and cursed Annily with my mind, wishing I could do nonverbal magic. As soon as I swallowed it Annily smiled and leaned back in her seat.

"See?" she asked.

"That was disgusting."

Annily giggled. "I know, they're awful! But I have an entire bag so I have to do something with them."

I shook my head. Of course. "You're a freak."

"Maybe," Annily shrugged "but at least I'm not repressed." She nodded towards Lisa Stevens, a muggleborn Hufflepuff. That girl was scary withdrawn. I had never once heard her speak or even seen her mouth open.

"Be nice!" I warned as Longbottom walked into the room. That was the last time either of us spoke until the end of class. One thing both of our parents had always done was insist that we show Professor Longbottom the utmost respect in his class.

Once class was finished, however, Annily instantly began to speak. "So I was thinking during class, about this whole James and Jen thing–"

"It's safe to assume you heard none of the actual lecture, then?" I glanced at Annily as I put my things into my bag.

Annily rolled her eyes and waved at me. "You were taking notes, so what's the point?"

I scoffed.

"Look, that's beside the point anyway. I was thinking that if Jen and James actually got together then that would be great for Vanessa and me, wouldn't it?"

I sighed. "And why is that?"

"Well," Annily started towards the exit "Then they would eat together, wouldn't they? I mean, obviously they would."

"Yes, they would. Why is them eating together great for you and Vee?"

"Because we will obviously be eating with Jen, which means we'll be eating with James, right? And Fred and Axel always eat with James, which means they will be eating with us, doesn't it?"

Ah ha! And so the truth emerges. "I guess so. Why?" Now I was just purposely playing stupid.

"That will give Vee the excuse she needs to get closer to him, wouldn't it? And I would get to hang out with Fred more!"

I stopped at a tree, I had grabbed some food at breakfast so that I could eat outside and enjoy the last remnants of autumn. "Are you ever going to admit you've got a thing for Fred?"

"Fred is one of my closest friends Cam! Why would I fancy Fred when he's always been there as a friend?" Annily narrowed her eyes at me. She didn't really like this topic, never really had.

"Because he's nice, charming, and extremely good looking?" I raised my eye brows at her.

Annily put her hands on her hips. "Sounds more like you fancy him to me!"

I looked up at the sky in exasperation for a brief moment and shook my head. "Yes, Annily, I am in love with Fred Weasley!"

"I'm sure." Annily giggled. "Look, I don't like Fred, okay? At least not like that. I mean, yeah he's a great guy and all but I'm just not that into him."

I smiled at her. Sometimes I wondered if she really didn't know how she felt about him. "Okay then. I'm going to eat out here today to enjoy the weather."

"Yeah? Okay, I'll see you later then." Annily waved and I shook my head as I settled down. She was too easy to defuse. Sometimes I felt guilty for taking advantage her Annily's easy humour, all a person really had to do was say something that was really not possible and then change the subject and she was instantly in a good mood.

I leaned back into the tree and pulled out my food and the copy of the Daily Prophet that I had stolen from Vanessa.

I was thoroughly engrossed in the news of wizarding England when I felt someone drop down on the ground in front of me. I was a little irritated at the interruption, thinking it was Annily back to argue with me after realizing that I had purposely distracted her.

I was pleasantly surprised when I looked up and saw Al sitting across from me. I smiled, "Hey!"

"Hey."

"What are you doing out here? Classes ended a while ago!" I put the paper onto my lap.

Al reached back and scratched the back of his neck. "Oh, I was just visiting with Hagrid. I saw you here and thought I'd stop and say hi. If you don't mind?"

"Oh no! I don't mind at all, I appreciate the company!"

"Yeah?" I nodded at him. "Good. What are you doing out here?"

"Me? Oh! I'm just enjoying the weather while I can, you know? It's only going to last so long"

Al nodded. "Yeah. So, uh, I was wondering if you were going to the Quidditch game on Saturday?"

"Gryffindor isn't playing, right?" I asked, flipping through the pages of the paper absentmindedly.

"No, it's Ravenclaw versus Slytherin."

"Oh, then no. I only go when Emily is playing. It's a moral support kind of thing."

"Oh." Al looked down at the ground.

"Why?"

"No reason, it's just that I'm definitely going and I was wondering if you were."

I felt a little uncomfortable. The conversation was going in a direction that I didn't like. I turned another page and something caught my attention.

"Huh."

"What is it?" Al leaned forward to see what I was looking at in the paper.

'Potter Girl Finds Love' was the headline. There was an entire article about Lily and how she was dating a fellow Hufflepuff fourth year. There was even a picture of the two of them sitting close and laughing together.

I heard a quiet huff escape from Al. I looked at him; he didn't seem happy but he also didn't seem too offended about it either. If it had been me or my sister then I would have been bloody furious!

"How do you handle this?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"What do you mean?" Al leaned back into his former position of sitting parallel to me.

"I mean, the media. You, and James and Lily, and your cousins–none of you have any privacy! Every time you so much as sneeze, it makes the paper!"

Al shrugged. "I guess, but it's how I've always lived, you know? Never really known any other way. I can't exactly say that it's easy or hard considering I've never not been in this situation."

"Yeah, I suppose so. I just don't think I could handle it all that well. I mean, I've been invisible my whole life and I am quite content with that status."

"You're not invisible, trust me!"

I laughed. "I am to the press, which is something I'm quite happy about. I couldn't imagine living like you do. I would go insane, always looking over my shoulder trying to find out who is spying on me. I'd never trust anyone, I'd just assume they were undercover reporters looking for their next story or something."

Al laughed. "You learn to tell the weeds from the roses. After a while you just know who you can trust and who you can't."

"Well, what about when you meet new people? How do you tell then?"

"You wait it out. You just have to decide, who do you want to get to know and is it worth the risk that they might end up being a weed instead of a rose, kind of thing."

I looked at Al, it seemed logical enough. I was a little sad that he had this entire situation figured out, though. That meant that there had been at least a few weeds in his life.

"So," I decided to turn this into a lighter conversation with a bit of teasing. "Am I a rose or a weed?"

Al gave me a strange smile and paused, it looked like he was trying to decide what to say. I supposed he probably was. I thought that I should be offended that he didn't know the answer to that question, but then if he was considering that I was a weed then he wouldn't be smiling.

"No, I don't think you're a weed or a rose."

I frowned. "I'm nothing, then?"

Al's smile widened a bit, but didn't lose it dreaminess. "No, you're a different kind of flower all together."

I could feel my eye brows furrowing together to make one large, unattractive eye brow. I was confused. "I'm confused."

"Yeah, it doesn't really make much sense."

"It doesn't make any sense!" I laughed, deciding that I wasn't going to be able to figure out Al's logic.

Al just gave me a shy, crooked smile. "I guess I'll let you get back to your reading."

"Okay." I felt a little sad. I was enjoying his company. "I'll see you later then?"

"Yep. Bye." Al stood up and waved at me.

"Bye." I watched him walk away feeling oddly empty after he was out of sight. It wasn't until then that I realized that Al hadn't blushed a single time throughout our entire conversation. I felt my jaw drop. Holy hell, Jen had to go on a date with James!

I didn't quite know what to do for a moment. Should I run to Jen? Or perhaps run to James? No, I thought. That would be silly. Should I wait and tell Jen in Defence Against the Dark Arts? If I did that, then I wouldn't be able to spend much time listening to the professor, would I? No, I'd have to tell Jen, and Emily too now that I thought about it, every detail of the conversation. I sighed. I supposed I could wait until later tonight. I really didn't want to. I wanted to run and tell everyone right away.

No, I decided. I wanted to tell James first, which meant that I would have to wait until I saw him. That also meant that I might not be able to tell anyone for a while. I sighed and decided to read the article about Lily to get my mind off of it.

I went through the rest of the day without speaking much. The girls all noticed but didn't ask me about it. I guess they assumed I was just down because our lesson in Defence Against the Dark Arts was a practical class and I was forced to attempt to nonverbally block spells and failed epically. In reality I was just anxious to find James so that I could tell him the good news.

I was also battling with myself on whether or not telling James first was a good idea. Shouldn't I tell Jen first? She was one of my closest friends, wouldn't it make more sense and be more sympathetic to her? She was, after all, terrified of falling for anyone let alone James Potter who just happened to be perfect for her.

I battled with this question all through dinner and I finally came up with an answer. If I told Jen first then she would most definitely talk me out of telling James. I would of course cave under the pressure of Jen's puppy dog gaze and end up not telling anyone and then Jen would never go on a date with James–or probably anyone else for that matter–and most surely never get over her fears. I was right in my original decision to tell James first.

"Does anyone know what dragon wings really taste like? I mean, before they're all processed and turned into something that can be barely considered meat?"

I looked over at Annily, who was holding a dragon wing, specially ordered for the Halloween feast, in front of her face staring at it as if she were trying her best to find the secrets of the universe inside it.

I bit back a smile as I listened to Emily and Vanessa laugh. I looked around for James. It was time I told him. I had to do it soon or I would back out and tell Jen first. He wasn't in the Great Hall so I assumed he had left to go back to the common room. It was a little strange to me, though, because Axel and Fred were still sitting just a few feet away.

I noticed Axel sending quite a few glances down our way. I hoped that those glances were for Vanessa, but I didn't really want to hang around to find out. I had to find James.

"I'm going to head up to the common room now." I waved goodbye to my friends and made my way out. It didn't take long to find James, actually. He was right outside the hall talking to Jen. I started to walk towards them but stopped myself when I heard Jen laugh. I stopped myself and I really looked at them. They both seemed so blissfully content, I couldn't bring myself to interrupt.

So I actually did go up to the common room, and I actually did do my homework. I forced myself to be productive to stop myself from hunting them down and telling them both at once, which seemed like the perfect solution in my mind; but I just didn't want to interrupt, how amazing would it be if she agreed to date James without the bet? I wanted to see how their conversation turned out and then I would make my decision on what to do.

One by one I noticed people coming into the common room and that was when I forced myself to put my books away and go for a quick walk around the castle before heading up to bed.

I was rushing through my walk so that I could talk to Jenessa, but as I turned one corner I walked directly into someone and my rushing was forgotten.

"Malcolm!" I felt my cheeks heat up.

"Camry, hi." He blushed too. It was cute. I felt my chest ache, a lot less than it did during our last conversation, though, but it still hurt to be around him. Maybe I was over him, I believed I was over him, but that didn't mean I had forgotten everything about our relationship.

I had meant it when I told Annily that I wasn't in love with Malcolm Jannings anymore. That didn't change the fact that I could still remember when I was. "What are you doing up this way?"

I watched as Malcolm reached to rub the back of his neck, much in the same way I always saw Al do it. "I'm, uh, meeting someone."

Well that's certainly what I wanted to hear. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"I'll let you get to that then, I guess." I turned around, intent on jumping out of the nearest window.

"Camry!" Malcolm caught my arm.

I turned to look at him, fighting a frown. I really didn't want to talk to him about his love life. "I know I already asked you this, but, are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Okay with what?" I looked away, pulling lightly on his grip.

"Lucy."

I suppressed a cringe. "Yeah Mal. I'm okay, I mean we broke up months ago didn't we? I'm not your keeper or anything. It's not like you need my permission or anything!" Wow, I was turning into Al with all this rambling.

Mal frowned at me for a moment before nodding and letting go of my arm. "I just don't want to hurt you."

I sighed and looked up at him, right into his eyes. His beautiful brown eyes. "I don't want to hurt you either. If she makes you happy I don't want you staying away from her on my account."

"You didn't say I wasn't hurting you."

"You're not hurting me."

We stood there staring at each other for a moment. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Sometimes I just really wished we were in fourth year again. I was the one that broke the silence. "Lucy is waiting for you."

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess I'll see you around."

"I guess you will."

I turned around and made my way back to the common room. I felt the same emptiness that I had earlier that day at lunch. What was wrong with me? It was getting ridiculous.

I was extremely relieved when I finally made it to the Fat Lady. She looked down on me with a curious gaze. "Alone tonight? How odd."

"_Ardent_" I snapped, not waiting for her to swing open before I began walking toward her. She barely swung open into to avoid me walking directly into her. I just wanted to go to bed, really.

I wanted to march past the people in the common room, but I decided last minute that I wanted someone to make me laugh. I looked around the room and saw Fred in the corner with Axel.

I had never actually approached Fred, it had always been him coming to me. I felt a little awkward, but then I told myself to suck it up and I marched to Fred instead of into my dorm room. I sat down next to Fred and across from Axel.

Axel looked at me in surprise and Fred just grinned at me as if I stormed over to him with a frown etched into my face all the time. I had wondered if he would put his arm around me and play with my hair like he did when he approached me, or if it would be different now that I had come to him.

He didn't really give me a chance to wonder very long, though, because he very quickly wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into him. "Hey Camry!" Fred laughed as he started playing with my hair.

I couldn't help it. I laughed too. "Hey Fred, hey Axel!"

"Hey Cam." Axel looked a little uncomfortable.

"What brings you over our way little Camry?" Fred was in a perpetually good mood. My mother told me once that the Weasleys were all very happy people, but Fred's mood was beyond 'very happy.'

"Well Fred," I could feel my mood brightening as I spoke. I made a decision in the back of my mind that I wanted to be better friends with this guy. "I was hoping you would make me feel happy before I went to bed."

Fred tightened his grip on me, pulling me in a bit closer so that I had to crane my neck to look at his face instead of his neck. "Well Camry, you've certainly come to the right place."

I laughed. "I knew it!"

"But while you're here, you can help Axel here!"

I turned to Axel, completely intrigued. Axel's face was bright red. "Shut up Fred!"

Fred scoffed. "Relax, she won't tell, will you Camry?"

"Uh," I looked between the two of them. Fred looked smug and Axel looked mortified. "I guess I won't?"

"See!"

"Shut up you bloody poof!"

I giggled. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing!" Axel's response was quick and filled with embarrassment.

"Axel wants to ask a girl out but he doesn't know how to do it." Fred seemed to be shaking with joy at this point.

"Really? Who?"

"No one!"

I looked up at Fred. "Who?"

"Well, Camry, I'd tell you but I don't think you could keep that part of the secret."

I frowned at Fred as Axel thanked him. "Then how am I supposed to help?"

"How would you like to be asked out?" Axel asked, getting into the conversation now that he knew his actual secret was safe.

"I'm not sure." I shrugged–as best I could while leaning into Fred–and sighed. Now I actually had to help. "I've never really thought about it."

"How about your friends? How would they like to be asked out?" Fred asked, twirling a piece of my bang around his index finger.

"My friends? Okay. Well, Emily would want to ask first, she's really into that whole 'women should make the first move' thing. Um, Annily would want it to be either public or really funny. And Vee would want it to be romantic, you know with roses and poetry and stuff." I didn't bother bringing Jen up. She wouldn't want to be asked out at all.

Axel seemed a little excited now. "Really? You're absolutely positive?"

I gave Axel the 'you are stupid' look. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

I was a little confused when he jumped up and ran off into his room. I turned to Fred, hoping for an answer to my unasked question.

"You just gave him an idea on how to ask her out." Fred shrugged and let go of me. "Now I've got to go make sure he doesn't overdo it. I hope I made you feel happy before bed?"

I laughed. "Yes you did. Thank you very much Fred."

Fred grinned at me. "So do I get a goodbye kiss this time?"

I pursed my lips at him and crossed my arms over my chest. I then raised my eye brows in a none-too impressed fashion.

"No then?"

I giggled and, without thinking at all, I leaned over and kissed the tip of Fred's nose. "Good night!" I quickly stood up and went up to my dorm room. I didn't want to give him a chance to react. I couldn't believe I'd done that.

"Where were you?"

I looked up to see Vanessa reading on her bed. I suddenly felt a wave of guilt. I'd just helped Axel figure out how he wanted to ask another girl out while Vanessa sat up here reading.

"I was talking to Fred and Axel downstairs."

Vanessa's eyes lit up instantly at the mention of Axel Sharkes and I instantly wished that I knew how to lie to my best friend. "Really? Did he say anything about me?"

I sighed. "He asked me for advice on asking out a girl."

Vanessa's mood seemed to dampen a little. "What girl?"

"He didn't say."

"How did he ask for your help?"

"He asked me how I'd like to be asked out and then he asked me how my friends would like to be asked out."

Vanessa's mood seemed to brighten again. "Really? What happened then? Did you tell him?"

I nodded.

"Good," Vanessa took off her glasses to clean them, something she did when she was thinking. "What happened after you told him?"

Sometimes I wondered if Vanessa really was just a teeny bopper fangirl in disguise. "He ran upstairs to plan how to ask the girl out."

Vanessa put her glasses back on. "Okay. Thank you. I'm going to go to bed now."

Huh? "Huh?"

"After I shower, of course!" Vanessa laughed as she gathered her toiletries.

"That's it?" I was confused. "No more third degree?"

"Nope." was all Vanessa said before she walked into the toilet. I shook my head and grabbed my toiletries to follow.

We got ready for bed in silence. I had discovered a long time ago that when Vanessa closes a conversation there is nothing you can do to get her to bring it up again unless she wanted to, so I didn't even try anymore.

When I left the washroom Annily was already in her pajamas. "When did you get here?"

Annily shrugged. "Ten minutes ago, maybe?"

"Do you know where Jen and Emily are?"

"Jen was called to the Headmaster's office. Emily went with her."

"Is everything okay?"

Annily shook her head. "Don't know. Jen didn't seem too worried about it, though, so it can't be that big of a deal, right?"

I crawled into bed. "Guess not."

"What do you guess not?" Vanessa asked as she exited the washroom.

"Jen was called to the Headmaster's office, but Annily doesn't think it's anything too important because Jen wasn't worried." I explained as quickly as I could.

"Yeah." Annily walked into the washroom.

"Even if it is, there's not much we can do before she comes up." Vanessa yawned and climbed into her bed, placing her glasses on the night stand.

I yawned and closed my curtains. "Night."

"Night."

"Gright!" I giggled to myself as Annily had called out from the washroom where she was apparently brushing her teeth.

I laid back into my bed and curled into myself and sighed happily. I liked sleep.

_I was wandering around the woods behind my house. It was warm, probably middle of summer. I didn't have anywhere particular to go so I was just enjoying the warmth and familiarity of the situation._

"_Camry!"_

_I turned around to see Fred running up to me. I just smiled at him and stopped to wait as if it were perfectly normal for Fred Weasley to be running around my woods._

"_Hey Fred, what's up?"_

"_Well, I was kind of hoping you'd come with me for a minute?"_

"_Okay!"_

_Fred reached out and grabbed my hand and I was instantly back at Hogwarts. "Hm, is this what you wanted to show me? Because I've seen Hogwarts before."_

_Fred laughed. "Of course not! And I never said I wanted to show you something. I just wanted you to come with me because someone wanted to talk to you!"_

"_Oh. Who?"_

_Fred pointed. "He's at the end of the corridor."_

"_Okay, thanks." I waved to Fred and started on my way down the corridor. How odd, I thought, I was fairly certain you couldn't apparate within Hogwarts grounds. Oh well._

_The end of the corridor came faster than it should have. I didn't know why I wasn't worried or even intrigued, but I wasn't. I just turned the corner like it was completely normal for the lengths of corridors to randomly change._

_When I turned the corner I saw Malcolm. I smiled. For some reason there was no Lucy where I was and I was happy. I ran into Malcolm's waiting arms and laughed. "Mal!"_

"_Cam, I've missed you."_

"_I've missed you too."_

_I pulled back from our embrace and looked into his beautiful brown eyes. I didn't wait any longer to lean forward and kiss him. It was just like I remembered, sweet and romantic. When I pulled back I was in heaven. I hugged him tight and pulled back to get lost in his eyes one more time._

_I looked into his–green?–eyes. I noticed the change in his eyes, but I didn't think it was strange. His eyes were even more beautiful when they were emerald green. It was then that I noticed Malcolm's face was starting to change and then I was confused._

_This wasn't right. Malcolm was turning into–_

I awoke with a start. I was confused by my dream and confused about what had woken me. Then I heard a sob. I didn't wait to see what was going on, I opened my curtains and saw Jen on the floor with Emily hugging her tightly.

"Oh god," I whispered and quickly went over to hug Jen along with Emily. "What happened?"

Jen just sobbed so Emily answered for her. "Her mum's getting divorced again."

"I loved him!" Jen sobbed.

"Who?"

"Her stepfather, Steven." Emily answered again.

I sighed and buried my face into Jen's neck. "It'll be okay."

"He was more of a father to me than my actual father." Jen whispered. "I can't believe he's gone."

I squeezed my eyes shot as I felt the tears struggling to escape. I hated this, I hated seeing Jen in pain.

"I can't do this anymore. I don't know how my parents do it, they run from one marriage to another. Relationships only ever end in pain, why do they keep doing this to themselves?"

I bit my tongue. Relationships only ever end in pain. I squeezed Jen as hard as I could as Emily started trying to console Jen by telling her that not all relationships end badly.

"No," Jen sobbed. "just all of the ones I've seen."

I decided right then that if I told James about Al then he wouldn't stand a chance with Jen. Maybe later in the year when she's had time to get over this. Now, I just had to be there for Jen and forget about the bet and everything that came with it.

I didn't get much more sleep that night.

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There you go. I hope this chapter is enough to make up for the wait! I'm terribly sorry about that.

I'm trying to make my dialogue more realistic and I was wondering how I was doing with that? If someone could tell me then I'd appreciate it.

_Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged_


	10. Amity

Chapter Title: Amity

Hey! Sorry for the wait, I've been working on this chapter for forever. On the plus side, I'm now done of my first year of University!!!

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Mondays suck. That's all I had to say on the matter. Mondays were some celestial being's idea of a sick, sick joke! First I had a double period of Defence Against the Dark Arts, and now I had to go and find books to write an essay about the topic covered in class. I really, really hated Mondays. I didn't even care that I had double potions first thing. It wasn't worth the torture I had to endure during the afternoon.

How was that fair? I can answer that question. It wasn't. Stupid class. Why did I need to learn this anyway? If I was ever attacked then I could just run away or hide behind Vanessa while she kicked some serious butt. I had no need to know how to stun someone.

I was practically on a war path on my way to the library. I wasn't even really all that surprised when I turned a corner and walked right into someone. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see that the person I walked into was Albus Potter.

I smiled at him. "Hey!"

"Hey. What's with the–?" Al left his question open, just motioning at me and the corner.

I sighed. "The essay we got in class today. I swear she hates me."

Al laughed. "I'm sure she doesn't."

"Right." I rolled my eyes. "You're just saying that because you're unnaturally good at Defence!"

Al grinned and pretended to be polishing his nails on his robes. "Well, I am Albus Potter!"

I tried to glare at him and suppress my laugh, but I failed miserably. I then decided to play along. "Are you really? Wow, I am unworthy!" I then gave a small bow.

Al laughed at me. It felt good to hear him laugh. I really enjoyed listening to it. If I had known how well I'd get along with him, then I would have befriended him years ago.

I shook my head. "I really need to get to the library. I'll see you later?"

"I'll be around." Al grinned at me and sauntered away. Actually _sauntered_. It took all my energy not to laugh at him.

I entered the library with slightly brighter spirits, but they sort of just plummeted back to their original place of depression when I walked to the aisle I needed. I hated Defence Against the Dark Arts. I was practically a squib as it was, was it really necessary to let everyone know? Personally, I thought the Defence Against the Dark Arts all seven years requirement was there just to torture me.

I started down the aisle; looking for one specific book in a library is not fun. I figured I should just get it over with though, and get it before someone else did.

"Ah ha!" I grinned triumphantly as I found the book I was looking for. I'd hoped no one else had gotten there before me. This book was one of the only books in the library dedicated solely to the theory behind nonverbal magic.

I grabbed the book and turned around; what greeted me when I was facing the other direction almost made me jump out of my skin. Margo Baker. I seriously wanted to know how she moved so quickly and quietly. That girl was just plain scary at times. Well, more creepy than scary, but creepy people _are_ scary!

"Margo." I was not exactly happy to see her. I was beginning to think she was stalking me. Every time I turned around I could see her glaring at me from a distance. I couldn't eat a single meal without her glaring at me, she made it a point to bump me in the halls. Not to mention when we were supposed to be nonverbally stunning people in Defence class the week before Margo took way to much pleasure in the fact that we were paired together. I had never been so happy to have to go to the Hospital Wing as I had been that day, just to get away from her!

"Camry." Margo crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me.

She didn't seem eager to talk, so I assumed she was just here looking for books on our Defence essay. I didn't wait long to find out though, I just started walking out of the aisle. I wanted to get away from her. She made my arm hairs stand up.

There was something off about that girl. Something that went beyond petty jealousy. Or maybe there wasn't? I didn't really know, but Vanessa told me once that some girls can take things pretty far when there is a boy involved. I just wish she'd realize that I wasn't any more of a threat to her than I was before. She wasn't very smart for a Ravenclaw.

"Where are you going?" She was suddenly at my side.

I sighed. "I'm going to check my book out."

"Where after that?"

I gave her a look. Was she actually, seriously stalking me now? Why did she care?

"Oh, I get it. You're running off to play with Al, aren't you?"

I scoffed. "Get over it Margo."

I tried to walk away again, but she grabbed onto my arm. It hurt, she dug her nails into me. She swung me around so that we were facing each other. She was exactly my height so it wasn't so much intimidating as it was a battle of wills. Who will back down first? "I'm not the one that needs to get over it."

I frowned. "Margo, will you just stop it already? I'm sick of this!"

She laughed for a second. "Well, that makes two of us, doesn't it? I'm not going to tell you to stay away from him again Camry."

I glared at her and ripped my arm out of her grip, no matter how badly it hurt to do so. "Al is my friend." It actually struck me like a physical blow how much I meant my statement. Al was my friend, and who was she to tell me otherwise?

I squared my shoulders and decided to end this for once and all. "He's my friend and I care about him. I'm not going to stay away from him just because _you_ want me to. So back the bloody hell off!"

Margo pursed her lips for a moment before speaking again. Her voice was frighteningly calm. "Alright then, little Camry. I'm just going to warn you one more time. Stay away from him. You don't know what kind of power I hold over you and your pathetic little life. I can ruin you. I _will_ ruin you."

"You talk a lot for someone that never really says anything." I scoffed. "I'm not afraid of you. You're nothing to me. And you're nothing to Al!"

Margo gave me one last withering glare before she stormed off. She did that a lot. Storm off, I mean. Maybe I was afraid of her, but she didn't need to know that. What kind of power she held over me? My father didn't work for her father, or anyone she was related to. None of my friends would ever side with her over me. I wasn't stupid enough to let her goad me into doing something dangerous. What other kind of power was there? At least, that she could use against me?

I giggled. She didn't have any kind of power over me, that was just her last effort to get me to leave Al alone. I figured at that point that I was finally rid of Margo Baker. Good. I registered that I was taking the book and left for the common room. I felt pretty good again. What was it about Margo that made me feel good? Oh, yeah, it was because she was so pathetic that it made me feel that much better about myself.

I wasn't very far from the common room when I was brutally attacked by my best friend. Vanessa ran straight into me at full speed and knocked us both onto the floor. It hurt.

"Ow." I whimpered. "Why did you do that?"

I realized then that she was shaking. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and lifted her head. I saw that she was laughing. "Vee?"

Vanessa rolled off of me and sat up. She held up a finger, signalling me to wait a minute. After she finally got her laughter under control–giddy Vanessa is not normal–she pulled me into a hug.

"Guess what?" She almost shouted as she pulled back.

"You got a new cat?" I was just confused. Had she finally gone mad? Had all of her studying finally driven her around the bend?

"Axel asked me out!" Vanessa was shrieking now, but now that I knew the reason, I was shrieking with her.

"Oh my god Vee! That's amazing!" I stood up and grabbed her hands to pull her up too. Then I continued to hold her hands while we jumped up and down shrieking like the giddy schoolgirls we were. I remembered doing something similar with Vanessa when she'd gotten a summer job at St. Mungo's. I thought it was a bit strange that she could get so excited over two completely separate things, but I made it a point of never questioning how her mind worked. It was the least I could do, considering she also thought I was mad.

Besides, how often did my best friend get everything she wanted?

"Wait, wait!" I stopped and let go of her. "When, where, and how?"

Vanessa took a deep breath. "In the Great Hall just now. He walked up to me with a bouquet of roses!"

"That loser! He got that idea from me!" I laughed.

"I know! He's such a dork!" Vanessa grinned and hugged me. "I can't believe he actually asked me out!"

I grabbed Vanessa and kissed her forehead. "I always knew he would!"

Vanessa snorted. "No, you didn't."

"Okay maybe not, but I always knew that he was a good guy!" I shrugged. "Maybe we've actually found the guy that can tie Vanessa Trout down?"

Vanessa smirked and shrugged. "Maybe."

I was a little surprised that she agreed–or at least came as close to agreeing as I thought was possible for Vanessa–so easily with me. Vanessa was never the relationship type. She liked to date, but never actually commit. Maybe Axel really was the guy that could tie her down?

I tugged on her sleeve and nodded in the direction of the Fat Lady. "Come on, let's talk more in our room."

"Yeah, sure." Vanessa smiled and giggled a little more on our way. I couldn't help but giggle with her. I'd never seen her act so girly in my life and I'd known her since just before Hogwarts.

As we entered the common room, I noticed Al sitting next to the fire with Don and Ashton. I waved at them as we skipped past toward our dorm room. Al waved back at me.

When he smiled at me I felt my stomach flutter for a second, and very nearly tripped over my own feet. The only reason I didn't was because my arm was linked with Vanessa's. I did stumble though. I felt my face heat up as I saw that Al noticed my two left feet. I looked away and rushed up the stairs with Vanessa. I couldn't believe I'd stumbled like that in front of him.

I pushed the door open to our dorm room, and Vanessa immediately rushed in to see who was in there. The only other person was Annily who was sitting on her bed with a book in her hand. I smiled as Vanessa ran and jumped onto Annily's bed, causing Annily to fall over.

"What are you doing?" Annily did not look impressed at Vanessa's interruption.

"Axel asked me out!"

I shook my head as Annily began shrieking with Vanessa as I had done just minutes earlier in the hall. I walked over and sat down on my bed and watched in silence as Annily demanded all of the details.

It was really starting to sink in at that point. Vanessa was going to have a boyfriend. I never really thought about her getting a boyfriend before, for as long as I had known her she had been completely for dating as casually as possible.

I was happy for her. Even if I was a little bit jealous too. I couldn't help but think that I was never going to find someone new. I took a deep breath, no getting melancholy. This was Vanessa's moment, I was not going to ruin it just because I was a bit lonely. I got up and walked over to Annily's bed and sat down with them.

"I just can't believe he finally asked me. We've been dancing around each other since last Christmas!" Vanessa leaned back onto the wall and sighed happily.

Annily snickered. "Gryffindors are supposed to be brave, boy took his time, didn't he?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Oh well, he's asked me now. That's all that matters, isn't it? No sense whining over lost time."

I smiled. "So, is your first date going to be Hogsmede in a couple weeks?"

I couldn't help but feel completely happy for Vanessa and about life in general at the way Vanessa's eyes lit up. "Yeah, I can't wait! I won't be able to do any work until then, I swear!"

Annily and I both laughed. "Yeah right!" we both said at the same time.

Vanessa pouted for a moment, while I shook my head. "The day Vanessa Jackiekynn Trout does not do her homework the very night it is assigned is the day Vanessa Jackielynn Trout is in a persistent coma."

"Hey!" Vanessa threw Annily's pillow at me. "I am _not_ that bad."

"Yes, you are." Annily laughed.

"Please! I haven't started the Defence essay yet!"

I gave Vanessa a pointed look. "Tell me, Vee, were you going to go to the library after you left the Great Hall until Axel asked you out?"

Vanessa's face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she put her face in her hands. "Maybe."

Annily and I giggled for a moment, choosing not to say anything, confident that our point was proven.

It was just then that Emily and Jenessa walked into the room, their arms completely loaded with cheese sticks. My mouth literally hung open when I saw the sheer number of cheese sticks in their arms. Never had I ever seen that many in one location before. It was almost heavenly–almost.

"Holy crap, could you have gotten more cheese sticks?" Annily always did know how to word things.

Emily laughed and joined us on Annily's bed before emptying the contents of her arms onto Annily's comforter. "We could have gotten more, but then we wouldn't have been able to carry them." Emily then grabbed one and held it out to me, which I gladly took. Who refuses cheese sticks?

Jen joined us on the bed quickly after Emily did and dumped the cheese sticks onto the pile that Emily had just made. She held one out to Vanessa, who also gladly took one. Annily didn't bother waiting for someone to offer her one, she just grabbed one and quickly popped it into her mouth.

"So," Emily started after finishing her first cheese stick, "what are we talking about?"

I saw Vanessa blush and hide a smile behind her hand. I smirked.

"Vanesja's got a jate werth Axshel." Annily's food was spewing out of her mouth at a rapid rate, but we were all far too used to it to be repulsed as others might have been.

"Huh?" Jenessa raised an eye brow. How does she do that? Seriously?

"Vanessa's got a date with Axel." Annily repeated herself, this time with an empty mouth.

When Emily started yet another round of squealing with Vanessa. I saw that Jenessa looked far from pleased. She actually looked thoroughly terrified, to be honest. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was worried about her impending date with James. It was obvious to everyone around us that Al and I were becoming fairly good friends and so it was only a matter of time in Jenessa's mind.

When the squealing stopped, Vanessa looked at Jenessa and frowned. "Are you okay?"

Jenessa quickly put a large smile on her face and nodded. "I'm great. Congratulations, it's about time."

Vanessa glared at our beautiful nutcase, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh?"

With a roll of her perfect eyes, Jenessa waved off Vanessa. "I'm fine, don't worry about it."

I sighed. "It's you that shouldn't worry about it."

It wasn't just Jenessa that turned a confused glance in my direction, but all of the girls. I shrugged and decided that I might as well just bite the bullet.

"I've spoken to Al without him blushing plenty of times." Jenessa's face paled considerably, but I just kept talking. "I haven't told James, and I don't intend to. You don't need to worry."

I saw the tension melt out of Jen's shoulders and a genuine smile light up her face. "Yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

Jenessa grabbed another cheese stick and handed it to me. I rolled my eyes and took it. When it was in my hand, she quickly wrapped her hand around mine and made certain to lock eyes with me. "Thank you."

I gave her a small smile. "It's not what you need right now."

With one last nod, Jenessa turned to Vanessa with a grin. "So tell us, how did he do it?"

I settled in to listen to the story once again, feeling much more content than I had in a while. I hadn't realized how much I missed talking boys with the girls until I started talking boys with them right then. It had been a while, boys had been a taboo topic for a long time after my breakup.

I liked that we could talk about them again.

oooOoooOoooOooo

And there it is, chapter ten. I'm happy to say that chapter fourteen will be the beginning of the real plot of the story, which I'm sure you all can guess what is going to happen in that chapter.

_Reviews Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged_


	11. Convivial

Chapter Title: Convivial

Chapter Summary: Al and Camry go on a date... sort of... but not really.

A/N: Hey, I only proof read this once. I wanted to get this chapter up before I decided to rewrite it yet again. Enjoy.

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I leaned forward over the sink so that I was uncomfortably close to the washroom mirror. I always hated putting on my eye liner because of how close it brought me to the mirror. Eye shadow and mascara were things I could easily apply a safe distance from the mirror, but for whatever reason I was incapable of putting eye liner on without leaning into the mirror. I had to get so close that I could see every flaw in my skin.

"Alright, I'm going to meet Axel. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

I jumped, and only just barely escaped stabbing myself in the eye with my pencil. I put my liner on the counter and turned to smile at Vanessa, who had just poked her head in through the door.

"Okay, you have fun today."

Vanessa grinned at me, she had been practically jumping off of the walls since Axel had asked her out. She moved to leave before I stopped her. I tapped her shoulder, and I bit back a giggle when she frowned. She really wanted to leave.

"Have Annily and Emily left on their dates yet?"

"Yeah, they left a minute ago."

I nodded before turning back to the mirror. "Thanks, have fun."

"I will!"

When I was finished with my eye liner, I leaned back from the mirror and looked at myself. I turned my face from side to side and inspected my eyebrows. Once I was satisfied that I was presentable I nodded at my reflection and left the washroom.

I glanced over at Jen's bed as I reached for the book I left on my night stand. I bit back a smile when I heard her groan. It wasn't often that Jenessa Glass got sick, and it was even less often that she was so congested that her voice lost its bell like tone and came out sounding more nasally than anything.

"Jen? You okay?" I tried really hard to sound concerned, I really did!

"I hate life." was the only reply I got.

I shook my head. "No you don't. Look, I'm going to go down to the common room to read. Is there something you wanted? I could get you something to eat?"

"Why don't you go to Hogsmede? You shouldn't stay here to suffer just because I can't go." Jen pulled the covers off from over her head to look at me. I was just a little envious at the fact that even while terribly sick Jen _still_ looked like an angel.

"Yes, I'll go to Hogsmede alone. That's sounds so fun." I raised my book into the air. "I think I'll stick with my fairy tale lands."

"We live in a fairy tale land. Go find someone to go with."

I shook my head. "I'm perfectly happy to just sit in the common room and spend the day reading."

Jen sighed. "I'm sorry I can't go to Hogsmede with you."

"You just worry about getting better, okay?"

Jen nodded. "Fine." Jen then rolled over and threw the blankets over her head again. "I still hate life."

I tried to laugh as quietly as I could while leaving the room. I just couldn't bring myself to feel bad for her. Jen was never sick. There was one week in fourth year where Vanessa, Annily, Emily, and I were all sick with the same cold and Jen spent every minute with us, but still somehow managed to remain completely healthy. I was thinking of her current situation as a form of poetic justice.

Even if it did leave me without someone to go to Hogsmede with. It was one thing when Vanessa, Emily, and Annily all had dates to go to Hogsmede when I could have had a girl day with Jen. With Jen sick I was left with absolutely no plans and nothing to distract me from my perpetual romantic status—or lack thereof.

I made my way to one of the comfy couches and settled down on it, prepared for a day of solitude. I was enjoying the book I was reading and I supposed that if I got to be too lonely that I could just go back to the room and hang out with Jen. Although that would probably mean catching the cold from hell from her. I sighed. I needed more friends.

I had only read about four pages when I felt the cushion sink down with the weight of another person. I didn't even have to look up to see who it was either because he quickly wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I didn't even try to hide the smile that leapt onto my face. I closed my eyes and leaned into him. For a moment I pretended that he wasn't Fred. I pretended that he was another boy, one that was holding me this way because he wanted me, and not just because he was a naturally flirty person. After a small pause, I opened my eyes and turned to look at him.

"Yes?" I asked him. Now that I thought about it, why wasn't he on his way to Hogsmede? "Was there something you wanted?"

"No," Fred shook his head. "I was just wondering what a beautiful girl such as yourself was doing reading when she could be well on her way to the village."

I snorted. "Right."

"No, seriously, why aren't you on your way to Hogsmede?"

I glared at Fred. "Why aren't you?"

"I am on my way! I just stopped to see why you aren't first."

I pursed my lips. "I suppos I could crash Emily's date, the guy is a bit of a git. Somehow, though, I doubt Emily will see it that way. I don't really want to interrupt Annily's date with Rick Somner—"

"Rick Somner?" Fred interrupted me.

"Yeah, he's a Hufflepuff in your year."

"I know who he is. Why would Annily want to date him though? They guy has about as much personality as Professor Binns."

I chose to just glare at Fred again. "She's going with him because he _asked_ her."

"We're getting off topic, I suppose." Fred shook his head. "So you're not going to Hogsmede because all your little girlies have dates?"

"Pretty much."

"What about Jen? I doubt she's got a date."

"She could have a date!" I snapped with the righteous indignation of a girlfriend.

"Does she?"

"No. But she could!"

Fred gave me a pointed look, causing me to look away.

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

"So why aren't you going with her?"

"She's sick. She isn't up to going anywhere right now."

"Ah."

"So you want to go to Hogsmede, you just don't have anyone to go with?" I nearly jumped out of my skin when James's head leaned over the back of the sofa and into my face.

"Bloody hell James!" I got up off of the sofa and out of Fred's arms. "That's how heart attacks happen!"

James shrugged. For a minute it looked to me like he was a little hesitant. He probably was. We hadn't really spoken since I punched him and yelled at him almost two months earlier; a few pleasantries here and there, nothing really. He probably thought I was holding some huge, immature grudge against him. Sometimes boys were just too stupid for me. Didn't he get that he'd just gotten me on a bad day?

"Sorry about that." He only looked hesitant for a minute. "Look, if you're looking for someone to go with then why don't you go with Al?"

I opened my mouth to explain exactly why I should not go with Al, but James never gave me the opportunity. He just turned around and ran up to the boys dorms. I turned to Fred, who was still sitting on the sofa.

"You knew he was behind us?"

Fred nodded, looking entirely unconcerned.

"And you couldn't warn me?"

"Where would the fun be in that?"

I sighed. "True. What are you two on about now, anyway?"

"James is getting impatient. He didn't think it would take this long for Al to get comfortable being in your magnificent presence."

I couldn't stop myself from looking away from Fred at that moment. James didn't think it would take this long for Al to be able to talk to me without blushing. I knew that I wasn't doing anything wrong by not telling James that Al and I had been talking without blushes for a while now, but I still felt a little guilty. I was just being a good friend to Jen, but I had promised Fred that I would help James. It probably wouldn't have bothered me so much if it had been James that had made the comment that Fred did.

"Camry? You okay?"

I looked back at Fred to see that he had stood up. He was in that strange pose that boys get when they want to touch you, but they're not sure if they should.

I forced a smile onto my face. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just not sure what you're getting at?"

Fred chuckled, dropping his half outstretched arm. "James wants you two to go on a date."

I choked. "What?"

"I told him it was a bad idea, but you know James." Fred gave me that look. The look that people get when they're talking about loved ones that are irrational. The 'you know how it is' look.

Before I had the chance to get my bearings back, James came running down the stairs dragging a very confused looking Albus Potter behind him. I almost laughed. It was actually kind of adorable watching the siblings interact.

James then dragged Al over to Fred and I and shoved Al toward me. "There! You two should go to Hogsmede together. You know, since you don't have anyone at all to go with since the girls all have dates!" James blurted out so quickly I couldn't even tell if he was breathing. He grabbed Fred and the two of them ran out of the room like the devil was after them.

"Uh..." Al turned to me.

"James found out that Jen is sick and now I have no one to go to Hogsmede with." I really hoped that Al would just say 'aw shucks, that's too bad' and then leave with Ashton and Don, who chose that moment to emerge from the boys rooms. "But you've got to get back to Ashton and Don, right?"

Al looked at his two closest friends who were watching him, waiting to see what Al would do. I don't think they knew what was going on, but they also assumed that Al had been dragged out of the room by James for a reason. Al smiled at them and waved for them to leave.

"What are you doing?" I asked, slightly panicked. I didn't want to go to Hogsmede with Al. It would be too much like a date, and Al and I were finally getting over that awkwardness.

"If you've got no one to go with, then why don't you and I go together?" Al was looking at me in that strange way that always made me feel a bit light headed.

I watched Ashton and Don leave the room and I started to feel smothered. "Uh..." I pulled my hair out of the bun I'd had it in and pulled it back into a pony tail. I didn't want to say no. He was putting himself out there by asking. I also didn't want to say yes, because it was a bad idea to let him think it was a date.

"It's an easy enough question Cam."

I looked at him, he looked amused. Maybe he didn't think it was a date? I decided to confirm that idea. "Yeah, sure. Why not? We can make fun of all of those losers on dates."

Al rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. Or, you know, we could check out the Quidditch shop?"

I forced myself to smile. "Yeah!" was what I said, but what I really wanted to say was "or not."

I picked up my book. "I just have to put this away. I'll be back down in a minute, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be here."

I nodded and walked back up to the dorm room. As I entered I was greeted with the lovely sound of Jen hacking up phlegm in the washroom. I curled my nose and dropped my book on my bed. I walked over to the washroom door and leaned in. "You okay?"

Somewhere in between coughs I think Jen managed to say she was fine. That's what it sounded like to me, at least. "I'm going to Hogsmede after all. I'll see you later okay?

Again, I think she responded with 'okay,' but it's hard to tell. This time when I left I did feel a little bad for Jen. Just a little though. I didn't dwell on it as I walked down the stairs and back over to Al.

Al held his arm out for me and I linked my arm with his without even really thinking about it. I had made it relatively clear that this was an excursion of friendship, so why shouldn't I just have fun with him? Al was my friend after all.

"So, who are Emily and Annily out with?"

"Hm?" I looked over at Al.

"You said the girls all have dates today. I know that Vanessa is going out with Axel. He hasn't been able to shut up about it. What about Emily and Annily?"

"Oh!" I laughed. "Yeah. Well, Annily is out with this Hufflepuff boy, Rick Somner—"

"Why?" Al interrupted me. "That guy has all of the personality of cardboard."

I frowned. "Why does everyone say that? He's a nice guy and he likes her."

"Sorry, I guess. It's just that Annily strikes me as the type to go for fun before nice."

I nodded. "Well, she is, but that doesn't mean she is incapable of liking nice."

"Of course not. I just figured she'd be more into guys like James, or Fred, or Axel, or someone like that." Al shrugged as we made our way off of castle grounds and onto the path to Hogsmede.

"She is. But just because she's more likely to go after guys like that doesn't mean that she can't go after guys like Rick too."

"I know Rick though, he's dull."

"Well maybe I think you're dull!" I turned away from Al to pout. I was really hoping the thing with Rick would work out for Annily, but from what Fred and now Al said I was beginning to doubt it.

"Aw, come on Cam! Don't be like that! Look, I take it back. Rick is a blast, he's a laugh, and a hoot, and a riot!" Al moved around to my other side so that I was looking at him and mocked my pout with one of his own.

I laughed. "Okay, okay. Continuing on. Emily is out with Derrick Morgan."

Al frowned at me. "I think I prefer Rick."

I nodded. "Yeah me too, but what can I do? Emily likes him and he's nice to her."

"That brings the number of people that Morgan is nice to to about, oh let's see... one."

"I know!" I frowned. I didn't want to talk about this. This was girl talk, and I couldn't bring myself to put Al into _that_ category. So I grinned and shoved him. "Look at you, all sensitive and girly!"

Al pointed at me. "I am not girly! Nor am I sensitive."

"Oh no, of course not!"

"Don't patronize me!"

"I wouldn't dream of it!"

Al stopped walking and looked at me for a minute. "Fine then. Patronize me."

"I will then!"

It was at that moment that Al launched himself at me, and I barely had enough time to start running away from him before he was chasing me to Hogsmede. I didn't run very long before I lost my breath and Al caught me. He lifted me up into the air while I screeched like a banshee. Our momentums prevented Al from being able to stop, and his lifting me up caused him to lose his balance and he fell. He twisted us around so that instead of him landing on me, I landed on him.

"Ow." I moaned, looking up at the sky, I rolled off of Al and turned to look at him while I caught my breath.

"Really ow." He moaned and rubbed his back as he sat up.

We looked at each other for a moment before laughing. I couldn't believe he had actually chased me to Hogsmede. I don't think he could believe that he fell.

Between breaths I gave him a small push. "You are such a dork!"

"I know." Al gave me a smile and a lingering look before he stood up and held a hand out for me. I took it and he pulled me into a standing position.

I looked over his shoulder. "Well, we're at Hogsmede now."

"I know you don't really want to, but can we stop off at the Quidditch shop first?" Al gave me the puppy eyes that no one can resist.

So I shook my head and signalled him to lead the way. Al grinned and gave me a brief hug. "Thank you!"

As we walked through the streets on our way to the shop I looked around and saw all of the couples. I realized that Al and I probably looked like a couple to them, so I decided to look at Al instead.

Although I knew that Al had feelings for me I still had trouble believing it at times. Here was this guy that was practically perfect—he was handsome, smart, fun, sweet, and completely smitten by me—and I just couldn't believe something could be that easy. It couldn't be that easy. Besides, it wasn't like I had feelings for him. Why couldn't I have feelings for him? It would be so perfect if I did.

I could have Al if I wanted, I thought. Even if I didn't want him, I could have him. I stopped myself right there. It reminded me too much of what my mother wrote to me when I stupidly sent that letter home asking for her advice with Al. 'Just kiss him, darling. You don't actually have to mean it' she had written. I could kiss Al if I wanted and he would definitely kiss me back, but what would that do to him? What would it do to me?

I couldn't imagine kissing someone and not meaning it, but even if I did decide to try it I most certainly would never try it with Al. Not with Al, because it would mean something to him and I couldn't do that to him. I cared about him way too much to hurt him like that.

Al grabbed my hand and dragged me into the Quidditch Shop. "I'm sorry to drag you here, but there's a new broom model out and I just have to get a look at it. Can you imagine an even _faster_ broom? It'll be insane at the Quidditch championship this summer!"

I sighed at let him drag me to the crowd around the new broom model. Boys. After a while I finally managed to drag him away from the shop, and I got my revenge by making him go into a clothing store with me. That's how we spent a good deal of the day; dragging each other into obscure shops to look at things we knew the other had absolutely no interest in.

It wasn't the lonely day in the common room that I had been expecting to have. I actually had a lot of fun with Al. It was definitely a good day.

oooOoooOoooOooo

Thanks for reading, and sorry for any mistakes!

Review Appreciated  
Flames Encouraged


	12. Phantasm

Chapter Title: Phantasm

A/N: So... it's been a year, almost to the day. I apologize to anyone (if there's anyone left) for the long wait. It's been a year of writer's block and personal discovery. Now that it's over and done with, I plan to have this story updated more regularly, _a lot_ more regularly.

oooOoooOoooOooo

You know that feeling you get when you know your day is going to be absolutely terrible? And do you know that feeling you get when you _thought_ your day was going to be amazing, only to find out that you were very, very, very wrong? I do. On both counts. This day in particular though, I thought I was going to have a great day.

Al and I had had an amazing day in Hogsmede together, and I was feeling really good about it. I mean, I now felt that I could officially call Al a close friend of mine. That's not something a lot of people could say; Al liked to keep his cards pretty close to his chest. I was one of very few that got to call him a good friend, and I was pretty damned proud of that fact. I could go to Al with personal problems, or just walk up to him to hang out. I didn't need a reason to do something with him, because we were really friends now.

If someone had told me before September that in just a few short months I would consider Albus Potter one of my better friends in the world, I would have laughed in their face.

And that's why I thought the day was going to be good. I woke up early for once. By early, I mean I only slept in ten minutes. It _was_ a Monday after all. Have I gone over how much I loathe Mondays? Yes? Okay then.

Anyway, I woke up early, and I looked good, and I was sitting in a rather large group of people at breakfast. I was friends with most of them, too. Al had actually walked up to the girls and I, with Don and Ashton at his side, and sat with us for breakfast that morning. Then Axel joined us, and that of course meant Fred and James were sitting with us too. It was kind of strange having so many people to sit with, considering I didn't usually socialize much outside of the girls.

But I was having a blast just sitting there with all of these people. I'd never felt better, to be honest; so completely content with my life at Hogwarts.

"So, wait, Professor Golightly _isn't_ gay?" I snickered into my juice. Emily couldn't get her mind around the fact that our evil Defence teacher wasn't interested in women. I couldn't really blame her though, Professor Golightly did have a butch haircut, and blatantly favoured several girls in our year.

Ashton shook his head. "No, she's married. That's why she doesn't stay at Hogwarts. Her family lives in Hogsmede."

"Does that mean her maiden name isn't Golightly?" Emily asked.

"God, I hope not!" Vanessa grinned from her comfortable position under Axel's arm. "Her first name is Holly."

"So?" I was surprised Fred was paying enough attention to ask a question, as he seemed fairly busy trying to sneak all of James's breakfast away while he was staring at Jen.

"Holly Golightly was a muggle singer about a million years ago." Emily answered. "I'm surprised you know who she is, Vee?"

"I don't. I just recognize the name as being someone famous. I think my mum's mentioned her a couple times." Vanessa shrugged.

I was surprised that Vanessa's mum listened to muggle music. "Didn't your mum come from this really strict pureblood family?" I asked. "How does she know a muggle singer?"

"Don't know. Maybe I heard it from my dad? Who knows?"

Al grinned at me, and then at the rest of the table. "Who wants to bet James isn't paying attention to anything we're saying?"

I laughed. "No one would be stupid enough to take that bet."

"Hey, James!" Don grinned.

"Huh?" Was the only indication James gave that he was even remotely present.

"Your robes are on fire."

"Kay."

Everyone chuckled quietly, and Jen rolled her eyes. "James!"

James shot up straight in his seat. "Yes, Jen?"

"You looked like you were about to fall into your pudding."

"What?" James looked at his mysteriously empty bowl. "Hey, where'd my pudding go?"

It was at this moment that Fred let out a loud belch and rubbed his belly. He grinned. "You weren't eating it."

"So you ate it for me?" James threw his spoon at Fred's head.

Fred easily dodged the spoon and shrugged. "Looks like."

It was at this moment that the morning post arrived, and the beginning of my dreadful day truly began. Everyone turned to wait for their letters and packages from home, eager for whatever tidbits of the outside world awaited them in their copies of the Daily Prophet.

I sighed as my family's owl stopped in front of me, waiting for me to retrieve my letter and to receive a treat. Whiskers—which was what my mother named him, don't blame me—was extremely fat and spoiled and so he sat in my food rather than stand on the table. I wasn't very fond of Whiskers.

I took my letter, and gave him the rest of my breakfast. I didn't really want to eat yogurt that was flavoured with owl bum anyway. My letter wasn't of much importance, just mum telling me that I was about to have a bout of good fortune and to keep my eye out. Whatever.

It was then that I noticed the people around me all avoiding looking at me, and trying to discretely hide their news papers from me. I looked around the Great Hall and saw everyone in a frenzy, everyone was trying to get a hold of a copy of the Daily Prophet.

I looked across at Vanessa, who was folding her paper up slowly. "Vee, can I see your paper?"

"What? Why?" Vanessa turned bright red.

"Vee?" I held my hand out patiently.

Vanessa pouted a bit and handed the paper to me. I was so confused. What could be so horrible that she didn't want me to see it? Had my mother robbed Gringotts? Was that the 'good fortune' she had been referring to? I wouldn't put it past her in the least.

I unfolded it to the front page and almost dropped it into the owl bum contaminated yogurt leftovers when I saw what was on the front page.

Right there, across the _whole_ front page, was a picture of Al and me from the Hogsmede trip two days earlier. I had his hand and I was pulling him to a clothing shop and he looked positively miserable. I remembered that moment, it was the third one I'd taken him to.

The headline read "_Middle Potter Child in Destructive Relationship_" and I was absolutely horrified. I knew that I should just put the paper down, but I couldn't. Maybe I was a masochist, but I had to know what this reporter was writing about me.

" _Albus Potter has recently been romantically linked with fellow Gryffindor sixth year, Camry Finch-Fletchley. The two were seen out on the town of Hogsmede this weekend, but it didn't look as though Albus was all that eager to be out with her. _

_ An insider reports that Finch-Fletchley bullied Albus into the relationship, and has been extremely verbally abusive. According to this insider Finch-Fletchley sees Albus as her ticket to fame and fortune, and first got her claws into him when she noticed his sparks with a pretty Ravenclaw girl. Finch-Fletchley apparently saw this as a threat and all but forced Albus to date her._

_ How long they have been dating is unknown, but what is known is that Finch-Fletchley is constantly berating Albus, both in private and in public—_"

I threw the paper down, unable to read anymore. I looked up around the Great Hall and saw almost everyone looking back at me. Some people were glaring at me, some were laughing at me, and I was disgusted at the situation.

It was then that I noticed the grin on Margo Baker's face. She looked positively evil, and when she noticed I was looking at her, she winked at me. _Winked_. She was trying to convince me that she had somehow had something to do with this. I looked back down at the paper, and saw the reporter's name; Miss Manfred Baker.

I felt sick.

Baker? This person had to be related to Margo. How evil was Margo? That she let her petty jealousy grow and fester until she actually would do something like this? She and this reporter had just single handedly _ruined_ my reputation. The worst part was that there was a small voice in the back of my head that kept saying 'can't say she didn't warn you.'

I realized then that Al was sitting right next to me, with his own copy of the Daily Prophet. Dear god, I thought, Al was sitting next to me. That just made the whole article seem that much more legitimate. I was afraid to look at him. How did he deal with this? How did he just let these articles and rumours slide off of him like nothing? This was a completely ridiculous rumour that most people had to know was completely without grounding, and yet I still felt as though I was going to burst into tears.

I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt Al grip my hand under the table. I turned to finally look at him, and he looked so worried and concerned that I couldn't take it anymore. I felt the back of my throat begin to tighten and I knew that some very unattractive tears were on their way.

"Excuse me." I whispered, and got up to rush out of the Great Hall. My friends all called out to me, but I ignored them. I couldn't believe this. I had been a nobody all my life. I liked it that way. As soon as I heard the doors close behind me, I started to run. I was trying not to think, and running was always a good distraction from thought.

It didn't really work though. I couldn't believe how some people could be so mean, or how an article like that could make the front page! Who the hell was running the Daily Prophet that would actually consider that front page news? The paper was seriously going downhill, fast.

I didn't really run for very long, the tightness in my throat wasn't getting any better, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe and I just didn't have it in me to keep going. Instead I just leaned against the wall of the castle and stared out a window. I'd never really thought about how badly I craved approval. I wanted people to like me, or at least not think badly of me. It was something I'd never realized before then.

My reputation meant a great deal to me, apparently. And the fact the Margo Baker had just taken it away from me made me extremely upset and annoyed. Who did she think she was, doing something like this?

"Um... Are you okay?"

I jumped and turned to see Lily Potter staring at me with open concern. I forced a smile and wiped at my eyes quickly. "Uh, yeah, I guess. Thanks though."

Lily bit her lip and just kind of stared at me.

I laughed. It was shaky and sad sounding, which only made my case worse. "It's nothing, really. I'm just overreacting to a bad rumour."

"Yeah? What rumour? I haven't heard anything, and I try to keep my ear pretty close to the ground." Lily walked up to me and leaned on the wall next to me. I couldn't really tell if she was being helpful or just nosy. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt; I did, after all, have pretty decent relationships with her brothers and if she was anything like them, well...

"There's just this article in the paper today. It's stupid really."

Lily nodded. "If it's an article that's getting to you, then don't worry about it. This time tomorrow there's going to be an article about Fred being gay and me being a hooker, and everyone will forget about today."

I laughed again, but this time it was a little more genuine. I turned and looked at Lily—she was the same height as me, despite being two years younger, which is just not fair—and smiled at her. She grinned at me and gave my shoulder a squeeze. I was a little surprised at just how similar her eyes were to Al's. Big and green and filled with kindness. I decided that I liked Lily Potter right then and there.

"Thank you." I didn't really feel all that much better about the situation, but I was a little more accepting of it. It this fourteen year old girl could live with these articles, I definitely could.

We stood there in silence for a bit. I think Lily was waiting to make sure I was really okay. But then she just smiled at me and continued on her way to class, or breakfast, or wherever it was she was going, I wasn't sure.

"Camry!" I turned to see a very frazzled looking Vanessa rushing toward me. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Are you okay?"

I smiled, almost completely genuinely, and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just thought it was getting a little crowded back there. No biggie."

"You sure?" Vanessa caught up to me and pulled me into a quick hug.

"Yeah, I'm sure. We should get to class though. Potions starts in a few minutes."

"Okay." Vanessa nodded, and linked her arm with mine. "That article was complete rubbish Cam. Anyone who really matters knows that."

"I know, Vee. It was just a shock is all. I'm not letting it get to me." Lies. But I was working on making it true, so I guess the intentions behind the words were true..

"Good! This time tomorrow Roxy Weasley is going to be an alcoholic anyway." Vanessa grinned at me, and I smiled back, a little sad that she said pretty much the same thing as Lily. People will forget about me because someone else is going to be targeted.

I somehow managed to get through the day. About half way through it I even stopped hearing the not-so-quiet whispers and noticing the laughing and pointing. It was definitely going down in the history of my teenaged life as one of the most uncomfortable, and humiliating days ever, and when I found myself walking up to the common room without supper I couldn't do anything other than imagine the beauty that was my bed that was waiting for me.

On my way though, I passed a group of giggling, gossiping third years. I was planning to ignore them because they were obviously talking about me, but I was too tired to tune them out. Ignoring the people mocking you for a whole day would tire anyone out, it's not easy!

"Is that her?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it. If I were her I would've run away by now."

"I know, right? Everyone knows she's a cheeky bint."

"I can't believe Albus Potter would actually get into a fight defending her!"

"I know, right? She must have him under a love potion or something."

"Definitely!"

While I was hearing them, I wasn't really listening, but the girl that mentioned Al defending me did catch my attention. Before I even know what I was doing, I walked over to the group of girls. All I was thinking was that Al better not have gotten into a fight over this.

"Hi." I grinned at them.

All five of the girls looked decidedly uncomfortable. "Hi."

The girl that responded to me, I decided, was the only one not paralyzed with fear. What did they think I was going to do to them? Honestly! "What was that I just heard about Al getting into a fight?"

I tried to patiently wait for one of them to answer, but none seemed to be willing to open their mouths. I was just happy to notice that they weren't Gryffindors. "Well?" I prodded them.

"Um, he got into a fight with a Slytherin in the dungeons earlier. Rumour is the guy was insulting you." One girl answered with a very shaky voice.

"Yeah, like, a muggle fight too. Not even a duel or anything." One other girl piped up.

"I wasn't there, but I came in right after Professor Golightly broke it up. She made them go to the Headmaster's office."

Another went to speak, all of them seemingly getting really into telling the story, but I just waved at them and continued toward the common room. They took far too much pleasure out of the misery of others. If I were a lesser person I probably would have hexed them as I left.

I couldn't believe Al got into a fight over that article. Though it did make his absence from Defence Against the Dark Arts make more sense. I had just assumed he was embarrassed. Slytherins insulted people all the time, that was no reason to start a fist fight. Then again, I couldn't help but feel a little flattered that Al had stuck up for me. It was nice to know that some people were loyal and kind all of the time, and were always prepared to stick up for a friend.

I walked into the common room and instead of walking up to my room like I was planning, my feet turned towards the boys' dorms and I ended up knocking on Al's door. I didn't really know why, but I felt the need to thank him for defending me, and then tell him that he never should have. Maybe I just wanted him to tell me it was all going to be okay. I hadn't spoken to him all day, and he was really the only person I felt could make this situation better.

I just hoped he had chosen to skip dinner too. Really, really hoped. I was let down, though, because no one answered the door. I sighed and turned to go up to my room and wallow in self pity for the rest of the night.

Just as I made it to the bottom of the boys' stairs the portrait hole swung open, and I felt my first real smile of the day spread across my face.

"Al!" I walked over to him, and felt my smile fall when I saw the dark green and purple bruise spreading across his cheek. "Al!" This time I wasn't calling out in greeting, but in reprimand.

"Camry, look, I can exp—" Al turned his face so I couldn't see his bruise as much.

"I already know about the fight Al, why didn't you get that healed!" I reached up and turned his face so I could look closely at the bruise.

Al avoided my eyes while letting me brush my fingers across his swollen skin. "McGonagall thought it would be a good lesson for us to keep our injuries from the fight."

"I hope the other guy got worse than this."

"Maybe not worse, but at least the same."

I let go of his face and he turned to look at me. I nodded at him. "Good."

Al smiled at me, but it was a little lopsided. I think maybe smiling hurt his face, cause only the corner of his mouth that wasn't on the side of the bruise turned upward.

"I was supposed to lecture you about fighting. I was _going_ to lecture you about fighting." I poked him.

"Why aren't you, then?" Al asked me.

I shrugged and turned away for a second. "Because you were fighting for me. What girl could be angry about something like that?"

"Camry, are you okay? You ran out of the hall this morning so fast I didn't know what to do. I was going to follow you, but Vanessa told me not to."

I felt a little annoyed that Vanessa had stopped him. It would have been nice if he had been the one saying the words that she did. I was happy, though, that he had at least wanted to.

"I'm okay, I guess. I just never really thought about how hard going through something like this would be like. It's been the longest day of my life."

Al just gave me this look. It was a look he gave me every now and then that made me think he could see into my soul. He then reached out and grabbed my hand, "Come with me."

"Where to?" I asked, not making even the slightest attempt to resist him when he started pulling me toward the portrait hole.

"I want to show you something." Al paused and turned to look me in the eye. "You just have to trust me, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

I felt a little awkward walking through the relatively crowded halls of Hogwarts while holding hands with Al, especially with all things considered, but he didn't seem eager to let go, and I wasn't going to pull away. Sure this would fuel the rumours, but considering the fact that he was pulling me along, I didn't suppose it would make them worse. Besides, there was a big part of me that was hoping that Margo would see.

Maybe she did, I don't know. I was preoccupied with trying to figure out what Al could possibly want to show me outside of the castle, in November, when there was no extraordinary scenery. I didn't ask though, I was enjoying the quiet. It was nice, and the quiet between us was making me feel better than any of the girls' soothing words had. It wasn't until Al stopped in front of the shed that brooms were kept in that I really felt the need to speak.

"Al, I don't fly. Don't you remember first year?" I no longer felt any better. Al was plotting to murder me.

He just laughed at me as he unlocked the shed. "Yes I remember. You were banned from continuing lessons with the rest of us, and were told to never try out for quidditch."

"I broke my leg, and Suzy Lawrence's arm!"

Al pulled out an old broom. One of the first year training brooms. "I know, but you're not flying. I am."

"What do you want to show me so bad that we need a broom to get to?" I crossed my arms, I was _not_ getting on that broom. No, nope, not happening.

Al sighed, and looked toward the quickly setting sun. "Look, Cam, you said you trust me. So please, just trust me, okay? I promise you won't regret it."

My turn to sigh. I dropped my arms. "Fine, but if I die, I'm coming back to haunt you forever."

Al got on the broom and motioned for me to do the same, which I did—if a bit cautiously. "Hold on tight, okay? Don't want you falling off."

I wrapped my arms around Al's waist and squeezed my eyes shut as he took off. I felt my breath leave my body at the same time that I no longer felt my feet touching the ground. I gripped Al so hard I swear there was no chance he had any more air in his lungs than I did at that moment. I kept my eyes steadfastly closed, and just hoped we got to wherever it was we were going fast.

We did get there fairly fast though, the trip in total probably only lasted about five or so minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when I suddenly felt something solid underneath me. I opened my eyes to see that I was on top of the astronomy tower, as in on the actual roof of the castle. The highest roof too.

I looked around, and I could see the whole of the grounds of the castle, and a lot of the Forbidden Forest, and the lake on the grounds looked like it was on fire because of the setting sun. Mostly, though, I noticed how small everything around us looked.

"Everything looks so small." I let go of Al, and worked on getting steady footing.

"Yeah, I like to come up here when I'm upset about things." Al set the broom aside and sat down next to my feet. He looked up at me and tugged on my skirt to get me to sit down too. I did.

"I always thought Hogwarts was bigger than this."

"Yeah, that's why I come up here. There's a great big world waiting for us outside of Hogwarts, Camry. What goes on in here doesn't really matter. It's only seven years out of possibly hundreds in our lives." Al looked at me with an expression that made me think he had a deeper meaning.

"So you're saying I shouldn't worry so much about silly little rumours?" I smirked at him.

Al chuckled. "Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying."

"You could have said that in the common room, you know."

"Yeah I know." Al nodded. "I just wanted to share this place with you."

I looked at him. He looked away, giving me a very good look at his bruised face. "Lies."

He turned to me. "Excuse me?"

"That's not why you brought me here. At least not only why."

"No," he shook his head, "not really. I just, I wanted to ask you something where we wouldn't be interrupted."

"Okay. Well, I don't think anyone's interrupting us up here."

Al was quiet for a minute. "Is it worth it?"

I furrowed my eye brows, and just looked at him for a moment. "Is what worth it?"

"Is being close to me worth the hurtful things people are going to say? I know what happened today hurt you, and don't insult me by pretending it's got nothing to do with our friendship."

I sighed, and pulled my hair out of its bun. I fiddled with my elastic. It had definitely occurred to me that this all happened because of him. I pulled my hair into a ponytail, and turned back to Al. He wanted to know if how badly my feelings had been hurt were worth it.

"It's not right. What you and your family have to go through isn't right, and it's not right that anyone you're friends with have to suffer it too."

Al turned away from me and crossed his arms over his chest. "Okay. If you want, then I can—"

"Al," I interrupted, "I'm not done yet. It's not right, and it's not fair." I reached over and pulled his face back to look at me, and I leaned in closer because the sun was almost completely gone now, but I wanted him to see me when I said what I had to say.

"But if this is something I have to go through in order to have you be a big part of my life, then it's something that I'm going to go through."

"Camry..." Al looked like I had just told him he was going to be an award winning professional quidditch player someday, or some other amazing news.

"Al." I smiled at him a little.

"Cam, I care about you. A lot."

I wasn't smiling anymore. "I know, I care about you too. If our roles were reversed, Al, I need you to know that I would've gladly taken that bruise for you."

Al wrapped his arm around my shoulders and started leaning toward me. It looked to me like he was going to kiss me, and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't hear anything other than the blood rushing in my ears or feel anything other than my heart pounding in my chest. Every cell in my body felt like it was on fire, and in that moment I really wanted Al to kiss me. I held my breath and closed my eyes.

Then I felt his lips on my forehead and I sighed softly.

"Thank you Camry."

"No, Al, thank you. You have no idea how horrible my day was today. You just gave me an amazing ending to an almost unbearable day."

I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. At least for tonight I was going to pretend that what had just happened between us was romantic. I knew that when I woke up in the morning I'd know better, but right then all I wanted was for him to hold me. Which he did.

oooOoooOoooOooo

And there we go. My first bit of creative writing in over a year. Now hopefully the next chapter isn't far behind.


	13. Chapter 13

Alright, so posting this story on two separate sites has become a bit of a hassle, so from now on I'll only be posting on , you can find the continued story here: http:/www[.]harrypotterfanfiction[.]com/viewstory[.]php?psid=253821, although the next chapter won't be up until January, because the que is closed for the holidays.


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